Alexandria shops demolished to make way for metro, displacing decades-old businesses

Early on Tuesday morning, authorities began demolishing shops at the intersection of the railway and tram lines in the Victoria neighborhood — the bustling transport hub of Alexandria — after evicting shopkeepers who had done business in the area for decades.

The demolitions are part of ongoing citywide state-led efforts to develop Alexandria’s transportation network and make way for a new connecting station, which will connect the new metro with the tram system — also slated for an upgrade soon.

A total of 267 shops in Victoria are to be demolished in the coming days, according to a lawyer who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity and who represents a charitable association that has been leasing the shops from the governorate for decades.

Shopkeepers have sub-leased the stores in Victoria from the Local Community Development Association for decades, doing business to serve residents and customers on the crowded Malek Hefny Street, which runs from Victoria to Sidi Bishr, according to the lawyer and shopkeepers who spoke to Mada Masr.

The shopkeepers and the association first received eviction orders four years ago from the National Railway Authority and have been fighting a legal battle since to keep their businesses. Mada Masr reached out to a spokesperson from the authority to confirm whether it had ordered the removal operations this week but received no reply by the time of publication.

The lawyer said that the shops were built in the 1980s and 1990s on land that belongs to the Alexandria Governorate. “The shops were built by the Local Community Development Association, which, under orders from previous governors in the 1980s and 1990s, granted them usufruct rights,” they said.

One of the shopkeepers evicted by the construction confirmed the area’s history. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the shopkeeper said they hold usufruct rights to the property, along with officially stamped licenses.

“I pay my fines, insurance and taxes,” the shopkeeper said, affirming the legitimacy of their business. “We take out bank loans secured by these stores. I have been in this shop for 25 years and my father before me for 45, and some of the other shops have been here for 48 years.”

“Tax, water, insurance and electricity records all list the store number or the name of the Local Community Development Association,” they added. “But now, anyone you speak to treats you like a trespasser — as if we’re stealing electricity or water.”

The shopkeepers first faced eviction threats in 2021, when the National Railway Authority issued a removal order against the Local Community Development Association, accusing it of encroaching on 4,200 square meters of government-owned land — situated between Victoria Station and Sidi Bishr.

Three shopkeepers, including the trader who had worked in the area for 25 years, told Mada Masr they believe the removal order was illegitimate, saying, “the Egyptian Railway Authority’s actions were based on an internal decision with no legal force.”

The association appealed the railway authority’s decision and won before the State Council, which found that the buildings lie outside railway property, according to the shopkeepers.

“A State Council advisory committee of five advisors ruled that the shops lie outside the railway’s jurisdiction, stating that the land is a right-of-way intended to protect the railway, not part of it,” the first shopkeeper explained.

But authorities attempted to proceed with the evictions anyway. “To bypass the verdict, railway property employees overstepped their authority to circumvent the law. They photographed the shops individually, claiming we built them, and filed a report at the Montazah Police Station accusing us of trespassing,” the shopkeeper recounted.

“The initial decision ordered the demolition of all shops collectively,” he continued. “ It was later revised to address each shop on a case-by-case basis. They sent us individual orders as if we were the ones who brought in the concrete walls and built the very stores we work in.”

“The decision made it seem as if we were thugs who built these shops ourselves. But we are not thugs,” the shopkeeper said. 

“The Housing Ministry and the Alexandria Governorate license our shops. Our shops belong to the Local Community Development Association, Group Two, Victoria, Sheikha al-Seyouf Bahri. We’re not violating the law.” 

In addition to the shopkeepers who spoke to Mada Masr, the affected stores include branches of well-known enterprises such as El Gamal Pharmacy, Bisco Misr, the Alban Omran dairy supplier, jewelry stores, the Consumer Cooperative Society and others.

Regardless of its legal status, the railway authority’s removal decision moved forward. When the lawyer and shopkeepers went to the Montazah first precinct before Eid to inquire about the status of their premises, a police officer informed them that the evictions would take place after Eid, saying it was a decision that came from “above.”

The lawyer speculated that “above” likely refers to the prime minister’s office, the Presidency and the Transportation Ministry.

When asked whether the shopkeepers would receive any compensation, the lawyer explained that the police had informed them they must first file a report on the removal of the shops, and then seek compensation from the association that leases the land.

Until then, the lawyer said, the legal route the shopkeepers should pursue remains unclear, as they don’t know the source of the latest decision or the entity responsible for its implementation. “We don’t yet know who we should address,” he concluded.

At the site in Victoria, the Alexandria-Abu Qir railway line that ran behind the shops is still visible. 

The line stop operating in March 2024, to be replaced by Alexandria’s first metro line, as part of plans to develop the governorate’s metro infrastructure based on a contract signed a year earlier between Transportation Minister Kamel al-Wazir, the National Authority for Tunnels and a consortium led by Orascom Construction.

The Abu Qir train line will be converted into a 43.2 km electric metro in three phases, which would connect with the Cairo-Alexandria railway at Misr Station and integrate with the Raml tram at Sidi Gaber and Victoria — the intersection where the shops were located.

Shops in Mohamed Naguib, Sidi Bishr, Miami, Asafra, Mandara and Montazah may also be affected, according to an internal research document produced by the project consultant in 2023 and reviewed by Mada Masr.

The shopkeepers held onto hope until the last minute that the plans would allow them to remain at the site, taking comfort from visits from representatives of the project consultant and Orascom, who reassured them that the shops were not in the way. 

One of the shopkeepers explained that the removals will hit the area and local community hard, saying “some people have been here for more than 20 years — widows whose late husbands had rented these stores. They sublet them and rely on them to survive, doing whatever they can to keep going.”