The transfer of employees to it will begin gradually, starting from next December

Beyond politics... a new capital in the desert for the "Second Republic" in Egypt

  • Construction work in the new administrative capital continues.

    AFP

  • The city takes into account the modernity of modern cities and includes a group of skyscrapers such as the "Iconic Tower".

    AFP

  • The city will include housing units in convenient installments.

    AFP

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A state-of-the-art presidential palace, a government district that includes all ministries, a seat for parliament, a financial and business district, a new opera, a sports city, residential areas, gardens and spacious courtyards.. Emerging in the middle of the desert to east Cairo is the new capital of the “Second Republic” that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah aspires to. Sisi.

The Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque and the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, whose architectural form mimics the old cathedral in the Abbasid district in the heart of Cairo, were the first to be opened in 2019 in the new capital, which will become, in a short period, not exceeding one year, the center of governance in Egypt.

The trial opening of the new capital, which is not yet known whether it will be named in the future or not, was scheduled to take place on June 30, on the eighth anniversary of the 2013 revolution that demanded an end to the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood.

But the construction work was delayed due to the Corona pandemic, and the transfer of employees to it will begin gradually as of next December, and the Egyptian government will start working there “for a trial period of six months,” according to the Egyptian presidential spokesman, Bassam Radi.

The Egyptian president reiterated on several occasions that the opening of the new capital will mark the "birth of a new state" and a "new republic".

Months after his election as president, Sisi announced in March 2015 the establishment of the new capital, then decided successively to establish several new cities in different regions, in the north on the Mediterranean coast in El Alamein (230 km from Cairo), and in the heart of the Nile Delta next to the city of Mansoura (on After 110 km), to the south (about 700 km), where the construction of the new city of Aswan began.

smart city

But the administrative capital remains “the largest project in all of the Egyptian state’s projects,” according to Khaled Al-Husseini, a spokesman for the company supervising its construction.

It aims, according to him, to address the problems of Cairo, which is more than 1,000 years old, inhabited by 21 million citizens, representing 20% ​​of all Egyptians, and suffers almost permanent traffic jams.

Fifty kilometers from the heart of Cairo, and 25 kilometers from the prestigious Fifth Settlement suburb, which includes the most important shopping centers and the most prominent private universities in Egypt, the location of the new capital was chosen “to be close to an urban community, and to be an extension of the Egyptian capital, (but) planned and organized. Well, and combines the legislative and executive authorities,” Al-Husseini explained, explaining that the new capital will be built in three phases, with a total area of ​​730 square kilometers.

He said that the first phase "will be built on 250 square kilometers, and will accommodate about two million citizens," and will include universities, schools and hospitals.

A few years ago, major real estate companies started building residential neighborhoods in the New Capital, and marketing campaigns for apartments and villas in them intensified, through installment offers of more than 10 years, which was not usual in Egypt.

Most importantly, according to Al-Husseini, it will be “a smart city, which in short means that it provides a better life for the citizen through (modern technological) tools and programs, including sensors for the environment, weather conditions, and surveillance cameras, all of which are linked to a security control and control center.”

And because access to and exit from it will be the most important factors for its success, especially since about 50,000 employees will work in it at the beginning, “but the number will double within three years,” according to Egyptian officials, it was necessary to establish a network of roads and transportation that cost several billions of dollars, and included a train Electrically, it connects it to the eastern neighborhoods of Cairo, and a monorail (a tram suspended on poles) connects it to its center.

cheap units

The authorities built cheap housing units for the employees of the administrative capital and its workers in Badr city, which is only 15 kilometers from their new headquarters, and the electric train will connect it with the new capital as of the end of next summer.

• The authorities built cheap housing units for the administrative capital's employees and workers in Badr City, which is only 15 kilometers from their new headquarters, and the electric train will connect it with the new capital as of the end of next summer.

• Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque and the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, whose architectural form mimics the old cathedral in the Abbasid neighborhood in the heart of Cairo, the first to be opened in 2019 in the new capital, which will become, in a short period, not exceeding one year, the center of governance in Egypt.

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