Madbouli follows up progress in project to turn vehicles into gas-powered ones

CAIRO, July 23 (MENA) - Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli on Tuesday chaired a meeting to follow up on the latest developments in a project to turn vehicles and microbuses into gas-powered ones nationwide.

Minister of Military Production Mohamed Al Assar, Minister of Oil and Mineral Tarek el Mulla, Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar, Head of the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) Abdel Moneim el Taras, Head of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (MSMEs) Neven Gamaa and a number of representatives of concerned bodies attended the meeting.

Cabinet Spokesman Nader Saad said the meeting reviewed a plan to turn as many as 142,124 vehicles out of a current total of 159,837 mass transport vehicles, including limousine service vehicles, minibuses and microsbuses, into gas-powered ones.

The meeting also discussed the implementation of a plan to turn public transport vehicles to operate with double fuel (beneze/natural gas). The plan's expected investments are estimated at EGP 3,109 billion including the cost of establishing 100 filling stations, the spokesman said.

The spokesman noted that the meeting also addressed a plan to replace the diesel-operated vehicles with new ones, with a target of giving compensations to owners of the vehicles whose production exceeded 20 years.

The meeting also touched on a study to replace old public transport vehicles with new ones operated with natural gas in light of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's directives to expand the use of natural gas as an alternative fuel, the spokesman added.