World Bank approves US$400 million to decarbonise Egypt's logistics, transport

CAIRO, Oct 4 (Bernama) -- The World Bank has agreed to finance Egypt US$400 million in advancing and decarbonising the logistics and transport sectors, the institution said Monday.

The finance will "support the shift toward low-carbon transportation along" Egypt's Alexandria-the 6th of October-Greater Cairo Area (GCA) railway corridor which mainly provides passenger trains services, the World Bank said in a press release on its website, Xinhua reported.

Nearly 19 per cent of Egypt's greenhouse gas emissions came from transportation, making the sector a major contributor only second to energy, it said.

A project launched under the financing agreement, called Alexandria Trade Logistics Development Project, will see the creation of a freight railway bypass to the congested GCA, it noted.

The bypass aims to run 15 container trains per day by 2030 between the Alexandria Seaport and the newly constructed 6th of October dry port. Additional freight trains will flow between the Alexandria port, Upper Egypt, and the Red Sea, the group said.

This will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 965,000 tonnes over 30 years, since running freight trains has a lower carbon footprint than by road, the World Bank said.

The project also pursued trade facilitation and the participation of private investors and the female labor force in the sector, which goes "aligned with Egypt's pressing development priorities", Kamel al-Wazir, Egyptian minister of transport, was quoted as saying.

The finance portfolio between Egypt and the international lender includes 15 projects in healthcare, social security, entrepreneurship and transport, worth US$5.7 billion in total, said the Egyptian ministry of international cooperation in a statement on Monday.

-- BERNAMA