New administrative capital under discussion

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has met Mostafa Madbouli, the minister of housing, utilities and urban communities in the presence of Amir Sayed Ahmed, project consultant at the Ministry of Defence; Emad al-Alfy, chairman of the engineering authority; and Kamel al-Waziri, chief of staff of the engineering authority of the armed forces, to discuss projects now in progress as a result of the cooperation between the Ministry of Housing and the engineering authority of the armed forces.

Presidential spokesman Ambassador Alaa Youssef said the minister of housing talked about the ministry’s current preparations to launch the  Ismailia city project next August to synchronise with the commencement of ships passing through the new Suez Canal. Youssef said the new city of Ismailia would cover 2,157 acres and contain 57,000 housing units with all the necessary utilities and services, including health and social institutions and a sports club.

The city is designed to accommodate the normal population growth and urban expansion of Ismailia governorate and neighbouring governorates. Madbouli spoke of the current development plans to carry out work on the bridges related to the 30 June Mehwer, which is parallel to the Suez Canal road. Madbouli have an assurance that this one of the most important bridges to be constructed so far, because it will be an international road connecting the Mediterranean harbours of Alexandria, Damietta and East Port Said with the Round Regional Road and \p further south, and will mitigate traffic pressure on the agricultural road.

Madbouli said 70,000 housing units were already built and another 170,000 would be completed by the end of December 2015. Of these, 50,000 will be wholly financed by the United Arab Emirates in accordance with an cooperation protocol signed on 11 May 2015.

The major part of the discussion was about procedures for the new administrative capital and all that is in place so far, as well as the remaining preparations that must  be completed if  the project is to be finished within its specified timeline. In this context, Youssef said that the Ministry of Housing had begun designing the the road and utilities schemes of the new administrative capital. These include the Mehwer Muhammad Ben Zayed Road that the armed force has already begun to build, and which will connect New Cairo with the new administrative capital.

Youssef said Sisi and Madbouli had agreed to allocate LE5bn from the Ministry of Housing budget of 2015/2016 to install the utilities in the city, and a water line is currently being laid from  10 Ramadan city to the new administrative capital with a production capacity of 100,000 cubic metres. This will cover the needs of 50,000 people.

Youssef added that at the meeting President Sisi had stressed the importance of finishing all the projects by a previously specified timeline, and with the lowest cost and the highest quality standards possible.

Ministry of Housing consultant Khaled Abbas told the media that the government would build the new administrative capital, and this is case of the possibility that negotiations with the Emirates investor Muhammad al-Abar might fail. Abbas said the project investment range would be from US$40bn to 50bn, and the negotiations were critical because they contained many detailed issues. The negotiations also include issues relating to the installation of utilities related to the first stage o the project that will probably take from three to five years. Abbas said that Egypt needed the new administrative capital because of overcrowding, especially when central Cairo contains 12 ministries that currently attract about 100,000 members of the public each day.

President Sisi has has said many times and on different occasions that the government budget will not stretch to the costs of building the new administrative capital, and it will be financed with money from foreign investments. Part of the new administrative capital will be dedicated to housing units for low- income Egyptians.

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