UTA to launch higher-fare transportation for car owners

CAIRO - 22 May 2017: The Urban Transportation Authority (UTA) is willing to launch a new unsubsidized means of transportation for car owners, in an attempt to reduce the traffic congestion, according to a statement by UTA’s Chief Sayed Ahmed on Monday.

“The new means of transport comes in the framework of a plan to solve the traffic congestion in Greater Cairo, and since private cars represent 80 percent of Cairo traffic, it will help alleviate this problem,” Ahmed said during his meeting with the Parliament’s Transportation Committee on Monday. The meeting also discussed the authority’s budget of the fiscal year 2017/2018.

The unsubsidized bus tickets will cost LE 6-8 ($ 0.33-0.44), while regular bus tickets cost between LE 1-2. These buses will provide passengers with more advantages, Ahmed added.

The Ministry of Finance has allocated LE 250 thousand for UTA in FY2017/2018.

More than one million cars enter into Cairo from nearby governorates daily, an official from the Ministry of Interior said on March 25.

Most of Egyptian institutions and ministries, plus the foreign embassies locate in Cairo; therefore, people travel daily to the capital to finish their administrative and governmental papers, he added.

Egypt has seen a 23.7 percent increase in its population in the period between 2006 and early 2016, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

The population count reached 93 million on Monday, an increase of one million individuals in less than six months, CAPMAS added.