Archive for Cairo Traffic Department

Dozens of Egyptians gathered late Tuesday on the October 6 Bridge near Abdel Moneim Riad Square, halting traffic and setting tires ablaze in protest of the referendum results.

Major General Hassan el-Bardesy, head of the Cairo Traffic Department, said that protesters numbered around 150 and that arrangements for alternative routes were made.

The protest broke out shortly after Egypt’s High Judicial Elections Commission announced the final results of the referendum on the new constitution, with the official “yes” vote amounting to 63.8 percent.

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil later came out to congratulate the Egyptian people on the new constitution, saying that the people are the winners and there are no losers.

Mohamed Badie, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, also offered his congratulations, calling on all Egyptians to start the building process.

Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, meanwhile, called for a “necessary and urgent” national reconciliation between political and intellectual forces, after the divisive constitutional drafting process and the snap referendum pitted supporters and opponents against each other.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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The Qasr al-Aini Street entrance to Tahrir Square has been reopened to traffic after being closed since December, when clashes took place outside the Cabinet building nearby.

On the orders of the Cairo Traffic Department, a bulldozer removed the stone blocks that had been set up to block traffic.

In mid-December, military forces violently dispersed a sit-in outside the Cabinet, led by protesters opposed to Kamal al-Ganzouri’s appointment as prime minister by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Seventeen people were killed in the fighting. 

A number of illegally parked cars were also removed from the area and traffic began to flow normally. Citizens standing nearby expressed their relief at traffic being reopened, happy they will no longer have to take alternate routes.

People’s Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny asked SCAF on Monday to remove all barriers on Qasr al-Aini Street and open it to traffic.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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The Finance Ministry on Tuesday announced that banks had received a total of 34,561 fresh applications from taxi owners wishing to participate in the government-sponsored “new taxi” program, of which 23,810 had been approved.

The initiative allows taxi owners to substitute their aging and decrepit vehicles with brand new taxicabs through special bank loans to be repaid in affordable monthly installments.

According to Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali, there are currently more than 47,000 taxis in Cairo that are more than 20 years old. “Now, we have 11,608 brand new cabs on the streets with another 8,000 ready to go,” he said.

Boutros-Ghali went on to point to a recent study conducted by the Cairo Traffic Department indicating that pollution in the capital from automobile exhaust had fallen by 22 percent since last year, while the number of road accidents involving taxis had dropped by 6.5 percent.

The study further revealed that Cairo traffic jams had been reduced by 4 percent within the same period.

Translated from the Arabic Edition.

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