SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Egypt's government announced
Friday plans to build a new capital adjacent to Cairo, in a massive new
project that in its first phase would cost $45 billion and take up to
seven years to complete.
Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced the plan at the opening of
the 3-day international economic conference held in this resort city and
attended by hundreds of business executives and world leaders. The aim,
he said, is to alleviate congestion and overpopulation in Cairo over
the next 40 years. By that time, Cairo — currently home to nearly 20
million — would have doubled in size.
The first phase of the ambitious program, Madbouly said, is an expansion
of the current outskirts of the capital to the east, adding an
additional 105 kilometers (60 miles) of development. The area would be a
new administrative center including government offices, diplomatic
missions and housing as well as universities, a technology and
innovation park, and 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) of roads. Madbouly
did not say what the new administrative center would be named.
The military has already began constructing the road linking Cairo to
the new planned administrative heart of the capital, he said.
Eventually the new capital would expand to 700 square kilometers in size
(270 square miles), much of it green spaces, linking up with the Suez
Canal zone, Madbouly said, calling the project a source of "pride and
inspiration" to young Egyptians
The ambitious plan is the latest mega project planned by the government,
headed by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who elected in June last
year. The other mega project is the expansion of the Suez Canal and the
creation of an industrial zone around it.
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