Can Kamel Al-Wazir’s plan mend poor roads in Egypt’s villages?

Transport Minister Kamel Al-Wazir has acknowledged that the ministry has focused too heavily on upgrading major roads linking ports to industrial zones at the expense of local roads in governorates. Speaking on the second day of the Egypt Forum earlier this week, he said the ministry would upgrade 3,000 kilometers of roads in villages and urban areas in the coming period, with investments totaling 42 billion Egyptian pounds (about $760 million).

The minister’s remarks have renewed questions about how road investments are divided between new highways and the road networks serving villages and urban areas, particularly amid repeated criticism of deteriorating local roads and the dangers they pose to users.

Not too much for our people!

During his speech at the forum, the minister reviewed internal road improvement projects completed in recent years. He said one project upgraded 3,000 kilometers of roads, while another, part of the Haya Karima (Decent Life) initiative, covered a similar length.

Al-Wazir defended the latest investment as necessary for residents, saying it was “not too much for our people in the villages and urban areas.”

Road data suggest that the planned coverage is indeed limited. The additional 3,000 kilometers represent about 2.3% of the roughly 129,000-kilometer network managed by road directorates and local authorities as of June 30, 2024, according to 2024 data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.

Roads managed by local authorities and directorates account for about 73.8% of Egypt’s total road network, which would make them a logical priority given their scale. Statistics also point to an acute need for improvements: nearly a quarter of the local network, or 30,500 kilometers, remains unpaved.

“Turning attention to village roads is certainly a positive first step, because the gap between them and the new highways is enormous,” journalist Ezzat Elkamhawi, a vocal critic of Egypt's urban planning, told Al Manassa, commenting on the minister’s remarks. 

Ezzat Elkamhawi 

Unequal investment in roads serving wealthy areas compared with those serving poorer communities has become increasingly evident in the attention given to roads leading to the North Coast since tourism businesses began expanding there, said Elkamhawi, who advocates for equitable infrastructure and social justice over elite-centered developments.

He added that investment in new roads has largely been driven by a desire to support the New Administrative Capital and other new cities. In practice, he said, this amounts to indirect support for real estate investment, which is already facing a substantial surplus of housing units. Investing in village roads, by contrast, supports development.

The New Administrative Capital has received extensive state support, not only through roads and new highways but also through investment in public transportation connecting it to other areas, most notably the monorail.

Elkamhawi said inequality goes beyond the lack of investment in village roads. “It would be one thing if the inequality stopped at separating roads for the rich in the desert from roads for the poor in the Delta and the Valley. But the past 10 years have seen agricultural land carved up by highways that, in the view of anyone concerned with agricultural development, undermine that development,” he said.

“More dangerously, these roads have brought together vehicles used by the wealthy, from tractor-trailers to powerful passenger cars, and those used by poorer people, including pickup trucks, small three-wheeled vehicles and tuk-tuks. The mixing of these vehicles  on the same roads has led to horrific accidents.”

He added that promoting fairness requires more than investment in roads and should also include expanding access to rail transport for the public.