Steinitz: Big Plans for Infrastructure Improvement in Yehudah and Shomron

Infrastructures Minister Yuval Steinitz is not letting any grass grow under his feet. In an interview with Moreshet radio, Steinitz said that his office was moving ahead with plans for the development and expansion of infrastructure in Yehudah and Shomron.

“President-elect Donald Trump has declared his support for Israel numerous times, and we believe this is a good opportunity to improve lives for all the residents of the area, Jewish and Arab,” said Steinitz. “I believe more construction will take place soon in Yehudah and Shomron.”

There are many infrastructure needs in Yehudah and Shomron, from unsafe roads to inadequate sewage and water systems to inadequate transportation, and Steinitz’s Ministry has plans for all of these. In one recently announced program, a report on Channel Two said that the Infrastructures and Transport Ministries had approved an expansion of the Jerusalem Light Rail to Maale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev and Adam, all located outside the 1948 armistice lines, in areas liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

There is also a master plan to expand Israel Railways service beyond Yerushalayim, to Maale Adumim and Gush Etzion. A spur of the railroad to serve western Shomron, with a stop in Alfei Menashe, has long been planned, as has the construction of a new road to serve communities north of Ariel with Road 6.

Confirming the announcement on the Light Rail, Transport Minister Yisrael Katz said that “residents of Gush Etzion, Binyamin, Maale Adumim, Beit Shemesh and Mevasseret Tzion are daily stuck in enormous traffic jams. They deserve to receive transportation services like everyone else. We obviously do not accept the argument that the artificial ‘Green Line’ should be a border over which public transportation may never venture.”