The government behind the ambitious, all-out construction drive in Egypt’s capital says that new flyovers sprouting up in Cairo are needed to ease the city’s nightmarish traffic.
But others, who point to poor planning, strongly disagree. They say flyovers are a short to mid-term solution to traffic congestion and the key is to move from car-centred strategies and invest heavily in public transport.
The tussle that pits the government and its planners against independent experts and urban activists is the kind that can be found almost anywhere in the world, but in Egypt the tensions are particularly fraught.
Construction is a cornerstone of the domestic policy of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s government and will probably be the defining feature of his legacy.
The work – under way since 2014 – spans dozens of flyovers; bridges on the Nile; new cities, including a new capital in the desert; thousands of kilometres of new roads; and low-income housing projects.
This overhaul of Egypt’s infrastructure is being overseen down to the smallest detail by the hands-on president, who often reminds Egyptians of the gross neglect the country suffered for decades before he took office in 2014.
But of all the mega projects Mr El Sisi’s government is undertaking, the flyovers in Cairo – as many as 25 by some accounts – are the most hotly debated in conversation and on social media by many of the capital’s 23 million residents who have for decades endured unbearable traffic congestion and suffocating pollution.
Now it looks set to get worse.
The flyovers encourage car culture to grow and disrupt the social fabric of neighbourhood communities while undermining small roadside businesses, critics said.
In Heliopolis, a leafy suburb that is home to the president’s palace, building flyovers has meant sacrificing trees and greenery, while elsewhere in the city real estate value has plummeted because flyovers take up the width of a street and residents can literally touch them from apartment windows.
“A lot of what is being done is in many ways needed to stimulate the economy, but sometimes we do that at the expense of 100-year-old trees or areas of historical significance,” said Ahmed El Dorghamy, a prominent energy and environment consultant.
About 1.1 trillion Egyptian pounds ($70 billion) worth of transport projects and 1,000 bridges and flyovers are either planned or already under way between now and 2024, he said.
According to Mr El Sisi, 200,000 new cars are added to the country's roads every year, mostly in Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. On a popular television talk show this month, he said that “we need flyovers to reduce pollution, ease psychological pressure [on motorists] and save time”.
He also assured critics that his government was investing just as much on key sectors like health and education.
Experts agree with the desperate need to ease traffic congestion in Cairo, a vast, Nile-side metropolis where densely populated shanty towns and wealthy neighbourhoods have existed side by side for decades.
But many say that mass transport projects announced in recent months, including plans for electric trains, a monorail, expansion of the city’s subway and a substantial overhaul of the railways, are a more sustainable and long-term solution.
“We are treating a city with clogged veins by unclogging those veins. That’s a simplistic approach because we also need to factor in heritage, preservation and public space as well as road safety,” said Mr El Dorghamy, who lives in Heliopolis.
He said the flow of traffic was quicker with the new flyovers on Cairo streets but said the city would return to its former levels of congestion after a few years. “Maybe we will not even be back at square one because, by then, we would not have the public space we once had.”
In the past two years, at least six new flyovers were built in Heliopolis alone, mostly running through residential areas and public spaces that had contributed to a quality of life rated among Cairo’s best.
Some activists claim that the special qualities of Heliopolis were sacrificed to building flyovers that create easy and quick access to the new capital farther out in the desert, the crown jewel in all the mega projects undertaken by the government.
The government categorically denied the allegation.
According to Michel Hanna, an activist from the area, Heliopolis lost more than 4,000 square metres of greenery and about 500 trees to make way for flyovers.
“I think the person who was in charge of planning built a bridge at every available space,” he said.
Excessive reliance on flyovers characterised urban development in Egypt for decades and made their shortcomings all the more apparent today.
“If you look at the history of planning in Egypt going back decades, you’ll find that overpasses are an easy and quick solution that allow people to move faster, but they don’t address the core of the problem,” said Engy Hegazy, an expert on mobility in Cairo.
“They’re just giant concrete structures that are pragmatic but void of any beauty. They lack social life. They take up space that could otherwise be a square or a street that brings people together.”
The May 15th bridge is a case in point. Built in the 1980s, it split the upmarket neighbourhood of Zamalek, slicing through the district’s high street and dividing the community.
Mohammed Hegazy, another independent consultant on mobility in cities, agrees with Ms Hegazy’s argument. “Much of the world now is moving away from widening roads and building overpasses that allow the focus to be on private cars and not public transport,” he said.
Mr Hegazy, however, is positive about the effect on the city when a multitude of environment-friendly public transport projects come online.
“The rate of change in Cairo has accelerated in the last few years,” he said. “I am excited about this change because, as we effect change, we will be able to identify what works for us and what does not.”
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
RESULT
Aston Villa 1
Samatta (41')
Manchester City 2
Aguero (20')
Rodri (30')
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
The Two Popes
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce
Four out of five stars
The specs: 2019 Subaru Forester
Price, base: Dh105,900 (Premium); Dh115,900 (Sport)
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 182hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 239Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.1L / 100km (estimated)
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Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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Results
6.30pm Madjani Stakes Rated Conditions (PA) I Dh160,000 I 1,900m I Winner: Mawahib, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)
7.05pm Maiden Dh150,000 I 1,400m I Winner One Season, Antonio Fresu, Satish Seemar
7.40pm: Maiden Dh150,000 I 2,000m I Winner Street Of Dreams, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
8.15pm Dubai Creek Listed I Dh250,000 I 1,600m I Winner Heavy Metal, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.50pm The Entisar Listed I Dh250,000 I 2,000m I Winner Etijaah, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson
9.25pm The Garhoud Listed I Dh250,000 I 1,200m I Winner Muarrab, Dane O’Neill, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
10pm Handicap I Dh160,000 I 1,600m I Winner Sea Skimmer, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
SQUADS
India
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur
New Zealand
Kane Williamson (captain), Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wicketkeeper), Henry Nicholls, Ish Sodhi, George Worker, Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Trent Boult
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
