CAIRO, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Egypt launched Tuesday a public bicycle sharing project to promote eco-friendly means of transport in downtown Cairo, the capital of Egypt, the Cairo Governorate announced in a statement.
The Cairo Bike project comes a few months ahead of Egypt's hosting of the 27th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, scheduled for November this year.
The current trial phase of the project starts with five docking stations in downtown Cairo. Following the trial operation, the project will be expanded to a fleet of 500 GPS-tracked bicycles in 45 stations across the city, said Cairo Governor Khaled Abdel-Aal.
A citizen can hire a bicycle for 1 Egyptian pound (0.053 U.S. dollars) per hour through a mobile application or a prepaid card.
The project is "the first of its kind in Egypt" as previous ones were limited to closed urban communities or narrow areas, said the governor, adding that the project will help reduce traffic congestion in downtown Cairo.
The project is launched by Cairo Governorate, in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), funded by Switzerland's Drosos Foundation and technically supported and supervised by the New York-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. ■