Egypt’s parliamentary committee approves bill regulating river transport in principle

CAIRO – 8 June 2022: The Transportation Committee of the House of Representatives, headed by Representative Alaa Abed, approved a bill reorganizing the Public Authority for River Transport in principle during its meeting on Tuesday evening.

MP Alaa Abed, head of the Transport and Communications Committee, said that the use of river transport will save billions for the state treasury, “as it will reduce pressure, consumption and depreciation of heavy road transport, as the cost of road construction is heavy.”

Abed stressed that river transport will ease the burden on roads and reduce traffic density and pressure, adding that rivers have multiple uses in all countries of the world.

He continued, "We hope that the draft law will take into account all the observations raised when discussing the inland navigation draft law, which was discussed by the committee over the course of a whole previous legislative term."

"We hope that the draft law will develop solutions to the problem of workers in the localities and the Ministry of Tourism and Irrigation, whose work is affected by river transport," MP Alaa Abed added.

Meanwhile, Representative Waheed Qorqor, Undersecretary of the Transport and Communications Committee, suggested establishing a company to manage river transport services. This company will work out protocols with the Ministry of Supply and cement, phosphate, fertilizer and quarry companies.

For his part, Representative Gamal Al-Saeed said that “river transport is a type of investment, and is the most appropriate type of transport, suggesting that both Alexandria and Damietta ports be linked to achieve maximum benefit from the draft law.

According to the explanatory note, the draft law aims to raise the efficiency of the water transport facility with inland waters, in order to achieve its optimal exploitation.

The authority is concerned with setting technical specifications, conditions and rules regulating inland navigation, with regard to the costs of inspecting river ports, marinas, and automatic and non-motorized river units.