A screenshot of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi during his speech in the inauguration of Alamein City and other projects
CAIRO – 3 March 2018: International media reporters and dozens of media and public figures arrived in Alamein City at 08:00 am on Thursday, after driving for less than two and a half hours from Cairo, Egypt’s capital, in order to witness the official inauguration of the New Alamein city by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi
Sisi laid the foundation stone of the New Alamein city, in addition to other new cities via video conference calls such as New Mansoura, Hadaek October, New Obour and Western Qena.
The city is located on an area of 48,000 feddans (49,824 acres) and is expected to be inhabited by more than 400,000 citizens.
President Sisi assured the availability of all services and utilities in the new cities. He also affirmed that the four new cities in the Upper Egypt should be completed by the end of next year, 2019.
Sisi asserted that the state institutions have to urge and help people to work for and earn their livings, adding, “I refused requests to bring foreign workers for national projects.”
“Egypt has enough workers, especially since hundreds of our workers have returned from Libya,” Sisi added.
Sisi addressed the military engineering sector and the ministry of housing to force the affiliated construction companies to offer insurance to their temporary workers within 15 days.
Education priority
Sisi ordered new universities to sign a partnership with any of the top 50 global universities in order to get an official license. He addressed Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel Ghaffar saying, “We should not allow private universities to contribute to the Egyptian society with modest or medium education quality.”
“If you really want to improve the educational quality in Egypt, you should not allow the building of new universities without a partnership with a good and well-known university internationally,” Sisi stressed.
Media instructions
Sisi stressed he will never allow defamation of the army or police image as long as he is in office as president. “Defaming the army or police is an insult to all Egyptians.”
“Defaming the army and police is treason,” Sisi warned. He directed media, culture and education officials to reconsider their strategies, stressing the efforts exerted by the Armed Forces in the past seven years to protect Egyptian security and order.
He called on the media to assist both army and police to project the real image of the efforts that the police and army have been exerting for Egypt. “I ask all media figures to visit the operation sites of the Sinai 2018 security operation to witness the martyrdom of our military and police brave soldiers fighting against terrorism,” said Sisi.
Railway Reconstruction
Sisi revealed that Egypt’s rail lines require funds from LE 200 billion ($11 billion) to LE 250 billion ($14 billion) to upgrade them.
During the inauguration of the first phase of the New Alamein City, Sisi stated that there is not enough money for the rehabilitation of rail lines, adding that he will raise money from passenger rail networks to be able to develop network lines.
Commenting on the train crash that happened on Wednesday in the Beheira governorate, Sisi stressed that he supports applying an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) - which is an innovative service used in monitoring roads and managing traffic - to decrease Egypt’s accidents especially the 5000 road accidents happen each year.
He called upon his advisor Ibrahim Mahlab to follow up on investigations regarding the accident, and reveal its results to citizens.
He requested the establishment of a committee of professors, military technical faculty and the Ministry of Transport to inspect all train locomotives and provide them with the needed care, referring that some lines will be stopped until their efficiency is upgraded.
In this regard, in an interview with “Evening dmc” on Wednesday, Minister of Transport Hisham Arafat said that railway networks’ infrastructure has aged, especially its signaling systems and tracks, stressing that they require upgrades.
Arafat said that the ministry is exerting efforts to improve the basic rail infrastructure by constructing, investing and operating, but a huge amount of money is needed nevertheless.
At least 15 people died and 40 were injured in a train crash that took place in Beheira governorate on Wednesday, according to the Transport Minister Spokesperson Mohamed Ezz.
Eyewitnesses reported that two separate passenger train carriages swerved off the railways and crashed into a cargo train.
The Ministry of Health provided the accident site with 30 ambulances to help survivors.
The Chief of Egyptian National Railways, Sayed Salem, headed to the site of the accident to closely follow up on the rescue works and investigations.
Minister of Transportation Hisham Arafat ordered the formation of a technical committee to investigate the accident, while all hospitals raised their readiness degree to the max in anticipation of the wounded passengers.
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