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		</div><p>Egypt’s government is taking its most ambitious stand yet against motorised rickshaws known as tuk-tuks, which have ruled the streets of Cairo’s slums for the past two decades.</p>
<p>The three-wheeled vehicles squeeze through dusty alleys, dodging rubbish bins and fruit stands, blaring rhythmic electro-pop and navigating the city’s chaos to haul millions of Egyptians home every day.</p>
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<p>But in a push to modernise the country’s neglected transport system, the government plans to replace the polluting tuk-tuks with clean-running minivans.</p>
<p>“This is for the health and safety of all Egyptians,” said Khaled el-Qassim, the spokesman for Egypt’s Ministry of Local Development, which is spearheading the initiative.</p>
<figure id="attachment_145578" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-145578" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-145578" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/481CEA59-98EE-410D-A380-34F09BC80CE9.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="400" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-145578" class="wp-caption-text">A driver tries to manoeuvre his tuk-tuk in a narrow alleyway of a slum in Cairo, Egypt</figcaption></figure>
<p>“We’re creating a more beautiful image of our country.”</p>
<p>The state had long turned a blind eye as tuk-tuks became part of the fabric of life in Cairo’s vast informal settlements.</p>
<p>The new plan requires that drivers sell their tuk-tuks for scrap and take loans to buy new minivans – or risk fines and even prosecution.</p>
<p>It has raised fears that the poorest Egyptians, already squeezed by economic austerity measures, will shoulder the bulk of the burden.</p>
<p>“I’d rather work as a thief than pay for this minivan,” said Ehab Sobhy, a 47-year-old who earns 130 Egyptian pounds a day plying the densely packed district of Shobra in his weathered black-and-yellow tuk-tuk, sporting a decorative Islamic sticker in place of a licence.</p>
<p>“If they take this away … how is my family going to eat?” asked Mr Sobhy.</p>
<p>Even with a government loan, he said he would not be able to afford the 90,000 pounds he estimates he would need for the new minivan.</p>
<p>“They’ll bring money to the banks, all at the expense of the people,” declared Mohammed Zaydan, a 52-year-old father of five who started driving a tuk-tuk after struggling to find work as a painter.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_145579" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-145579" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-145579" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/D41B8522-56C3-4EA6-A70D-DA3D3E0D1A98.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="400" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-145579" class="wp-caption-text">Tuk-tuk drivers make their way on a street in a slum area of Cairo</figcaption></figure>
<p>“If they ban the tuk-tuk, they trample on the poor.”</p>
<p>Former president Hosni Mubarak’s government tried to stem the tide of tuk-tuks, banning them in most of Cairo’s affluent neighbourhoods, but it also allowed tuk-tuk parts to flow from South Asia to Egypt, where vehicle manufacturers legally assembled and sold the unlicensed vehicles.</p>
<p>It was a classic example of the state’s contradictory approach towards the informal economy, which accounts for as much as 50% to 60% of Egypt’s GDP, according to the International Labour Organisation.</p>
<p>“Because of its limited capacities, the state lives with deeply embedded informality,” or do-it-yourself infrastructure, like unauthorised housing, which saves the government from providing mass services to the poor, said Amr Adly, a Cairo-based political economy expert.</p>
<p>The business exploded, with rickshaws becoming especially popular with disabled people, the elderly and women who want to avoid harassment at crowded bus stops.</p>
<p>But that could soon change.</p>
<p>Now President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government, which has spent the past five years trying to revamp Egypt’s image, is taking aim at the unregulated vehicles.</p>
<p>Now President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government, which has spent the past five years trying to revamp Egypt’s image, is taking aim at the unregulated vehicles.</p>
<figure id="attachment_145580" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-145580" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-145580" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/561EC85D-D8C5-4E59-8835-C03C8F22BEB4.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="400" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-145580" class="wp-caption-text">A tuk-tuk driver washes his vehicle</figcaption></figure>
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<p>Last year, it passed a traffic law requiring that all new buyers license their tuk-tuks.</p>
<p>Ghabbour Group, the country’s largest vehicle producer, was hard hit, its tuk-tuk sales dropping by 60%.</p>
<p>In September, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced a sweeping plan to phase out tuk-tuks in 20 governorates, swapping them for seven-seater minivans.</p>
<p>The proposal, offering drivers a payoff period of up to five years, bars all tuk-tuks from cities and main roads but allows new and licensed tuk-tuks to continue operating in narrow alleys and rural villages.</p>
<p>Egypt’s finance and military production ministries, along with three major vehicle manufacturers, have opened an economic review to hammer out the details and expect the microbuses to hit the streets within a year.</p>
<p>El-Qassim, the spokesman for the development ministry, said the tuk-tuks contribute to congestion, air pollution and fatal car crashes – even terrorism, since the government cannot trace unlicensed vehicles.</p>
<p>He described them as a drag on Egypt’s economic productivity, keeping teenagers out of school and depriving the state of revenue from registration fees and taxes.</p>
<p>But sceptics question the logic of changing a tuk-tuk prized for its tiny size, high manoeuvrability and cheap fare for a microbus that manufacturers expect to be four times the size and price.</p>
<figure id="attachment_145581" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-145581" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-145581" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/246401C7-0525-4F66-8ACC-DB52C1404363.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="400" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-145581" class="wp-caption-text">A driver manoeuvres his tuk-tuk in a narrow alleyway</figcaption></figure>
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<p>“It’s a reflection of how the state is more obsessed with appearances than investing in the infrastructure of where people actually live,” said Rabab el-Mahdi, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo.</p>
<p>Since taking power in 2014, Mr el-Sissi has focused on ambitious mega-projects, building high-end housing complexes and a sprawling 45 billion dollar new administrative capital in the desert outside Cairo.</p>
<p>The bigger goal is to revive tourism and attract foreign investment as the country recovers from the turmoil of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled Mr Mubarak.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, much of Cairo has spiralled into disrepair and decay.</p>
<p>The official statistics agency recently reported that one third of Egyptians live in poverty.</p>
<p>Tough austerity measures imposed to stave off economic collapse have slashed subsidies and dramatically hiked up prices of everything from subway fares to drinking water, taking a heavy toll on working-class Egyptians.</p>
<p>In September, sharp economic discontent and allegations of government corruption marshalled small but rare protests against the president.</p>
<p>Security forces arrested thousands, escalating a long-running crackdown.</p>
<figure id="attachment_145582" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-145582" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-145582" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/5A6F977B-2271-4DEB-B1D0-EA86E0727DBA.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="400" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-145582" class="wp-caption-text">Citizens help tuk-tuk drivers manoeuvre in traffic</figcaption></figure>
<p>“The state is much more willing and able to go down with a heavy hand,” said el-Mahdi, adding that the military mindset has created a government-wide shift.</p>
<p>Still, observers note that enforcing the new plan will pose a challenge.</p>
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<p>Much remains uncertain, including how the government will guarantee registration among those more accustomed to bribing police than obeying traffic laws.</p>
<p>“People will be trying to resist, to circumvent these developments, to go on living,” said Yasser Elsheshtawy, professor of architecture at Columbia University.</p>
<p>“This is something very Egyptian.”</p>
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