CAIRO: Six meters of a fence separating the railway from the Hehya town in Sharqia collapsed after a power transformer outside was bombed early Monday, Youm7 reported.
A plan to secure 80 percent of pylons, about 140,000 across the country, has been set to cost 72 million EGP ($9.2 million) yearly, head of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company Ahmed al-Hanafy told Youm7.
A fine of 500,000 EGP would be imposed on any officer who fails to prevent the bombing of a transmission tower, said Hanafy; sabotaging pylons, pipelines and their affiliated buildings is punishable by seven years in prison, per a new terrorism law passed by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi Sunday.
If such attacks result in the death of a person, it becomes a capital offense.
Many public utilities including water plants, trains and public buses have come under attack since the 2013 ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.
Also on Monday, an explosives storehouse and a factory for explosives manufacturing were discovered in two towns in Menoufia governorate, according to the Menoufia security directorate.
Ten jerrycans of material used to make explosives, nine machineguns and pressurized cylinders were seized in the process.
The bombing of some 163 pylons in two years, according to Hanafy, has inflicted losses of 100 millions of EGP on the government, but has failed to affect the country’s national grid. Rolling blackouts that Egypt has experienced since 2011 have significantly decreased after dozens of power plants were opened in the past year. Rural areas; however, still report long power cuts.