Egypt promotes river transport to ease road congestion

Egypt’s Ministry of Transporthas earmarked around 4 billion Egyptian pounds ($130 million) for new river transport projects, as part of the government’s drive to ease traffic congestion on the country’s roads, reduce transportation costs, and reduce pollution.

A single ship can shift substantial amounts of cargo — equivalent to the load of hundreds of large trucks. Moreover, river transport facilitates connections with other African nations, particularly land-locked countries and those located in the Nile Basin.

According to the ministry, development work has been carried out the Cairo-to-Aswan and Cairo-to-Ismailia maritime routes, while the Ismailia Canal’s navigational bottlenecks have “been eliminated.”