Egypt Eyes New Cairo Capital City Along Sokhna Road

According to the London-based The National, Egypt is weeks away from signing a 240 AED billion deal that will develop a capital city the size of New Cairo.

For over a year, rumours were growing that Egypt was eyeing a new capital to relocate the Egyptian government to. Finally confirming a few details Ashraf Salman, Egypt’s Investment Minister said the city will get the green light at a conference that will be held next month in Sharm El Sheikh. “We are talking to a master developer. A signature will take place by the conference, and after that the construction will begin,” he told The National.

Refusing to identify the name of the developer, the only information that Mr Salman would provide is that UAE parties are involved in the deal, a claim supported by the previous statements made by Ibrahim Mahlab, who on a visit to UAE this month said that Emaar, the Dubai developer, would play ‘a key role’ in building the new capital city.

According to Salman, “We’re talking a very big city. It is just the size of New Cairo itself... It is the ‘new New Cairo’.” Giving some insight on its possible location and development schedule, the minister points out that the new city will take 12 years to build and will be built on the road to Ain El Sokhna covering 70,000 acres, which is roughly equivalent to the size of New Cairo.

Hoping not to have the construction costs fall on Egyptians the minister explains, “The government will incur zero cost in the city, and this will be totally developed, master planned and executed by a private sector company – a developer from the Gulf,” adding, “We will be offering around 25 projects in different sectors, amounting to around $30 bn.”

Aside from creating a new city filled with commercial, industrial, and residential areas, this massive project will also help Egypt create a myriad of new jobs, which ultimately addresses one of the most troubling issues keeping Egypt from a full economic recovery post Mubarak.