February 28, 2022. The step is part of the country’s six-phase plan to convert the engines of 2,262 diesel-powered public buses — of which 1,962 are running in the capital and 300 in Alexandria — to operate on natural gas at an overall cost of EGP 1.2 billion.
The project is meant to preserve the environment, reduce air pollution, and make use of the country’s plentiful natural gas production, which has been booming thanks to recent gas discoveries.
The process is being implemented as per an agreement signed in June 2021 between the Ministries of Finance, Military Production, and Petroleum and Mineral Resources and Cairo and Alexandria’s public transportation authorities starting FY2021/22.
The agreement came within the framework of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s directives to replace vehicles to run on natural gas in order to achieve the optimum economic benefit from natural gas and to maximize its added value.
The plan’s first phase comprises the conversion of 327 buses in Cairo and 50 others in Alexandria over a period of 15 months. Twenty-four buses have been converted and are ready to be delivered to the public transportation authorities in both governorates so far. Both Cairo and Alexandria have allocated the necessary lands to set up natural gas fueling stations to serve the new engines, assuring that there will be no buses running on diesel by the end of the conversion plan’s sixth phase.
The process also includes raising the efficiency of buses in light of the Decent Life Presidential Initiative and its goal to provide Egyptian citizens with befitting transportation modes.
Egypt, which will host the next UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27) in November, is aiming to rely more on cheaper, cleaner energy sources and to increase the amount of power generated from renewables to 20 percent by 2022 and 42 percent by 2035.
