Algiers Metro will not be operational before December of January 2012: RATP’s CEO

Pierre Mongin, Chief Executive of RATP, Tuesday said the Algiers Metro will be operational in December of January, denying Algerian transport minister Ammar Tou’s remarks.

“In the end of the year, in December or January at the latest, we hope to exploit in the RATP this metro as we were chosen by a tender from the Algerian authorities to achieve it,” Pierre Mongin told France 24.

 “The city of Algiers is very large. It is congested and it needs now public transports,” he added.

 The Algiers Metro transport project dates from the 1970s. It was designed to address the need for mass transport caused by the city’s growth.

 Speaking about the accumulated delays in the achievement of this project, the RATP’s CEO said they were due to a “certain number of tragic political events.”

 “Those events deeply and durably delayed this project.”

 Mongin said the conditions are now on more easygoing.

 In 2007, the RATP gained a contract to manage and exploit the new metro line for eight years.