Algeria to freeze metro development following oil price drop

Algeria has frozen the expansion of the capital’s metro system due to the collapse of global oil prices, an official revealed yesterday.

Director General of Metro of Algeria, Omar Hadbe said in an interview on state radio: “Construction to expand the metro line from Al-Shuhada Square in downtown Algiers to the neighbourhoods of Shofali, Dali Ibrahim, Cheraga and Ouled Fayet had been frozen”.

Construction to connect El-Harrach neighbourhood with Houari Boumediene Airport will not be affected by the freeze, Hadbe said.

According to the government plan, the metro network will cover 55 kilometres by 2025.

The metro network in Algiers covers 13 kilometres and connects the downtown Postal Service building to the Haï El-Badr neighbourhood. It is made up of ten stations and was inaugurated on 31 October 2011.

Oil revenues account for 60 per cent of Algeria’s annual budget. The collapse of oil prices in international markets during the past two years has caused the country to loss nearly 50 per cent of its revenues, according to government sources.

Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said last summer that Algeria needed to reduce its huge infrastructure projects, but will complete projects it had already begun.