The expected movement of the Egyptian administrative Capital from Cairo to its new location has been ordered by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
According to el-Sisi’s order, a six-month window commencing from December 1st has been given to governmental agencies to move from its current location from next month to the new sprawling administrative capital in the desert outside Cairo said presidential spokesperson, Bassam Radi.
The $45 billion city is the biggest of the mega-projects el-Sissi has launched since taking office in 2014.
The New Administrative city is built on 170,000 acres about 28 miles -about 45 kilometers east of Cairo and nearly twice its size. It is planned to house 6.5 million people.
Presidential spokesperson said the new administrative city is to absorb the booming population of Cairo, which is expected to double to 40 million by 2050 and according to its planners the new city would accommodate the Presidency, Cabinet, Parliament, and Ministries, as well as a 21-mile-long public park, an airport, an opera house, a sports complex and 20 skyscrapers, including Africa’s highest, at 345 meters (about 1,132 feet).
Presidency also said that the new capital, and other projects ranging from new roads and housing complexes to a Suez Canal expansion, will attract investors and create jobs for the country’s more than 100 million people.
The movement to the new administrative city is expected to witness the movement of Egypt’s 52,300 government employees and also herald a new era of modernization and the use of technology as witnessed in all the government buildings.
The shift of the seat of power outside Cairo will be the first since the Muslim conquest in the 7th Century.
Critics however called the new capital a vanity project, arguing that its cost could have been better put to rebuilding the wrecked economy and refurbishing Cairo.
