CAIRO, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered Thursday the formation of a technical committee to examine all locomotives and railways following a train collision accident.
The move came after the train collision on Wednesday that killed at least 12 people in the Beheira province north of the capital Cairo.
Sisi made the remarks during the inauguration of the New El Alamein city project in Matrouh province north of Cairo.
"We need from 200 to 250 billion Egyptian pounds (up to 14 billion U.S. dollars) to establish proper railways but this amount of money is not available and we have to face it realistically," the Egyptian president said at the ceremony aired live on the state TV.
"Some may ask why we leave the railways in a poor condition and build new cities. We will get the budget of each place (in the new cities) from those who would stay there," he said.
Sisi explained that the establishment of new cities is an investment of the government while the railway development needs a lot of funding which is currently unavailable.
He added that the new committee should examine the railways nationwide and halt those unqualified lines until they receive maintenance and become safer.
The Egyptian president lamented that his country loses at least 5,000 lives in traffic accidents every year.
Sisi also urged the Communications Ministry to work to adopt the Intelligence Transport Systems (ITS) for traffic monitoring and management.
Egypt witnessed a number of deadly train accidents over the past few years in which hundreds were killed and wounded.
Last August, two train collided in the coastal province of Alexandria north of Cairo, leaving at least 49 people dead and more than 100 injured.
