The World Bank on Monday approved a $400 million development financing deal for Egypt’s logistics and transportation sectors.
The financing agreement, approved by the executive directors’ board of the bank in Washington, is to support the sectors’ shift towards low-carbon transportation along the Alexandria–the 6th of October–Greater Cairo Area (GCA) railway corridor.
The World Bank financing is to be used for the Cairo Alexandria Trade Logistics Development Project’s construction of a railway bypass to the congested GCA.
The bypass will provide freight trains between the Alexandria sea port and the newly constructed 6th of October dry port, with an alternative route to the west of Greater Cairo.
The operational bypass will also allow 15 container trains per day by 2030, and as demand increases, 50 trains by 2060 to this dry port.
Additional freight trains will run between the Alexandria Port, Upper Egypt, and the Red Sea.
Egypt’s rail system is one of the most extensive in Africa, with a generally heavier focus on its passenger services.
The network also operates three freight trains per direction per day in the GCA.
The transportation sector is the second-largest contributor to Egypt’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after energy—contributing approximately 19 percent.
Transporting containers and other freight by train has a lower carbon footprint than by road.
The bank estimates the project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 965,000 tons over 30 years.
“Reforming the transportation and logistics sectors is vital to Egypt’s competitiveness and economic development,” said Lieutenant General Kamel El Wazir, Egypt’s minister of transportation.
“This new project introduces several improvements in those vital sectors. The improvements are aligned with Egypt’s pressing development priorities, which include decarbonisation, trade facilitation, private sector participation and gender balance in the workplace,” he said.
Increasing the number of containers moved by rail from zero to 184,000 per year is one of the project’s key objectives.
This flow of containers is primarily between the Alexandria sea port and the 6th of October dry port, both privately operated and railway oriented.
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