“Gasoline prices should be raised,” said Magdi Afify, undersecretary of the Shura Council’s transportation committee, at a council meeting on Wednesday. “And its subsidies should be spent on education.”
The committee’s members also called for reducing numbers of private cars in Greater Cairo in an attempt to resolve the city’s notorious traffic jams, and for expediting a new law that forces shops to close at 8PM in order to save energy.
Committee member Saadawi Ragheb complained that not a single traffic department official attended the meeting to take part in the discussions.
“Traffic jams discourage investment in Cairo,” said committee member Laila al-Khawaga.
Her colleague Mahmoud Mahrous claimed Cairo has 2.7 million cars and warned of additional traffic congestion when the capital’s population reached 30 million in 2050.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
