egypt new city in the desertegypt new city in the desert

Writing in a state-owned newspaper, columnist Sayed el-Bably confidently said the city exemplified how the economic conference at which it was announced would allow Egypt to convert dreams into facts and projects. Egypt's New Administrative Capital being built by Chinese construction companies. What to know about this shopping app before you place an order, Special Feature: Unlock the Full Power of Your Phone, These $400 XR glasses gave my MacBook a 120-inch screen to work with, Google Pixel Fold review: Samsung's first big competitor comes out swinging, Smart home starter pack: 5 devices that will make your life easier. Meanwhile, an aquifer gives 10th of Ramadan independence from the Nile, but makes the city vulnerable to pollution. his latest book Egypts Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster? This is why the New Administrative Capital is already being seen by many as a colossal waste of resources. A city fit for pharaohs? Egypt's new capital rises from the desert The real reason Egypt Is Building a New Capital City in the Desert and "Why Egypt Is Building a New Capital City in the desert""It's been called one of the m. But take a look aroundwere in the heart of the city. The militarys enormous role in funding the project is further proof of the conflation of the civil and the military in a country ruled by a former army general Current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power on the back of a coup that removed Mohamed Morsi, Egypts first democratically elected president. Industries plastics, paper, medical supplies and garment factories are concentrated in a 10-mile strip along the southeastern edge of the diamond. Its true that Cairo as a city is massively congested, and there is probably a need for a new capital city. I tried Apple Vision Pro and it's far ahead of where I expected, Amazon Prime Day is official: July 11-12 for major sales on tech and more, The best early Prime Day deals: TVs, phones, AirPods, robot vacuums, more, Is Temu legit? Back in 2011, it was clear to all of us in Egypt that Mubarak lost power the moment he lost control of the strategic Tahrir Square. And el-Sisi knows that a huge construction effort like building a new capital is the best way to win businesses over. Debt-ridden Jordan follows Egypt's lead and plans new city in the desert We are committed for the first phase, he says. Everything I could want is here.. The state already confirmed that the new capital will be well secured with state of the art electronic monitoring systems. The Guardian (2018, May 8) 'Cairo has started to become ugly': why Egypt is building a new capital city. asked AP's Hamza Hendawia in an article last year. But there are fears that the project will not only help the countrys backbone industries and struggling businesses to get back on their feet, but also allow the military to spread its tentacles further across the Egyptian economy. Thirteen thousand workers, all of them with phonesyet no photos! he said with relish. While the history of cities built from scratch is long, the scale of the current epidemic is beyond anything seen before. Also telling is how El Sisi is depicted facing outward, toward his creationattentively presiding over how contemporary Egypt will be shaped and how its story will be told. Many desert cities, from the American Southwest to the Middle East, . February 15, 2022. by Eric Olander. Its architects claim it will uphold the highest stands of sustainability. There are security implications to any development project that involves the seat of government, but it can be fairly said that the administration of El SisiEgypts former minister of defence, who took power in 2013 by means of a coupseeks to maintain a firm grip on how the country is portrayed. But in the rush to design it, Girardet wonders if the finer details of waste disposal and green power were lost. The private sector had significant economic and political clout in Egypt during Mubaraks rule. Moreover, the already overcrowded capitals 22-million population is expected to double by 2050. Cairo is already a congested, polluted, and overcrowded city that is predicted to double in size by 2050to 40 million people. On Monday, Sisis office announced 1.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($96 million) in incentives for civil servants selected to move to the city. But with a smile, Abdeen also reminded me: We are the builders, from ancient times, 5,000 years. Basic to the identity of Egypts 106 million people, as its new capital reminds us, is civilisation buildingnot just once but many times over. Indeed, Egypt hardly stands alone in having done so recently. And one of the most prominent slogans in the January 2011 protests that toppled the Mubarak regime was social justice. Thus, this project is an opportunity to create much-needed jobs and rejuvenate Egypts core industries, such as construction. The speed of construction is remarkable especially . Accessed April 1, 2020. There will be a monorail passing through a business district where a 385-metre central tower is close to completion. Pressed by the Guardian, Madbouly said he already had the money to build at least 100 sq km of the new capital, including a new parliament. Some of these buildings are in the very heart of Cairo, overlooking Tahrir Square, and have significant value. But why are they doing this and why would they choose this unfavorable landscap. Implicit in this narrative of Egyptian history is the argument that relocating ones capital constitutes a momentous but also somewhat customary turn of events. The suburb of New Cairo was meant to attract several million residents, but a decade on is only home to a few hundred thousand. And in June 2012, on the day of his election, Morsi went to Tahrir Square, greeted the crowds and unbuttoned his jacket showing the people that he was not wearing a bulletproof vest, and as their representative, was not afraid of them. His regular visits to the city are being obsessively covered by the state-controlled media. With urbanization well above the global average, a young tech-savvy population and a raft of major infrastructure projects, the Gulf region is helping pioneer the smart city model. 5 Min Read CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt is racing to prepare a grandiose new capital city in the desert east of Cairo before the first civil servants move in this summer and ahead of the delayed. "There is something very wrong with the order of priorities," agreed political analyst Hassan Nafaain an interview with AP. With this project which will likely make the countrys rich richer, the military stronger, and contribute to the ever-increasing misdistribution of resources el-Sisi appears to be repeating the mistakes that led to Mubaraks downfall. Writing for Cairobserver, a blog about the current capital, Khaled Fahmy, a history professor at the American University in Cairo, said: Assuming that the aim of building a new administrative capital is to alleviate the pressure from downtown Cairo where the majority of government offices are located, and assuming, for arguments sake, that the 5 million inhabitants will actually be moved from overcrowded city, what will happen to the rest of us?. Governments think they can just move people to new areas, but actually people go where they want to go, said Simcik Arese. With many streets blocked to ensure the security of these buildings and their occupants, it is at times impossible to go from A to B in the city. If the government does not take urgent steps to ensure the gates of this new city are also open to poorer citizens, this new project will achieve little in helping underprivileged Egyptians. Although the masterplan drawn up by Egyptian and Swedish engineering firms, and inspired by the modernist principles of Constantinos Doxiadis and the French villes nouvelles depicts the city as a diamond in the desert, in reality the unfinished city appears to fade out from south to north. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it, but I rather doubt it., The reason earlier desert settlements failed to attract residents is largely due to a lack of infrastructure and employment. We're finally learning their stories. Desert - National Geographic Society But the governments responses to these claims also hold truth this project will make a tangible difference in the lives of ordinary Egyptians living in the countrys congested capital and the major construction effort will push the national economy forward. Even though downtown Cairo is only an hour away, for the residents of 10th of Ramadan the capital may as well be on the other side of the Sahara. To Umm Abdu and other natives of Cairo, the thousand-year-old city was anything but disordered. Sisi, who has embarked on multiple infrastructure mega-projects and national development schemes, says other regions will not be neglected. A Look at Egypts $58 Billion New Capital City in the Middle of the Desert | Egypt is the Latest Country to Build a New Capital City From Scratch, With Nearly 24 Million People Living in Greater Metropolitan Cairo, the Current Egyptian Capital Suffers From Severe Congestion and Overcrowding Problems Which the Government Claims the New Capital Will Resolve.Egypt Joins More Than 30 Countries or Regional States, Which Have Relocated Their Seats of Power to New Cities Designed From Scratch: Brazil, Australia, Kazakhstan and Nigeria Are Among the Most Famous Examples. Its boutiques had yet to open. Egypt's audacious plan to build a new capital in the desert Projected costs for the new capital range between $45bn and $58bn. So the project is also being sold as an effort to tackle pollution and make Egypt greener. Great Sand Sea. Officials say the city will eventually include social housing and is meant to finance itself through land sales, though it is unclear how much revenue these have generated. I was not permitted to wander the new city unescorted. Run-down sections had been razed, and pricey riverside apartments will take their placepart of a plan to demolish 357 residential areas throughout Egypts 27 governorates. It is unclear whether this current generation of new cities will learn from the experiences of four decades of new cities construction, or continue the extreme levels of spatial segregation of Sheikh Zayed City. But if Egyptians don't see an improvement in their living conditions and services, he will be remembered as the president who destroyed what is left of the middle class.". Reuters (2019, May 13) Egypt's new desert capital faces delays as it battles for funds. Despite having lived in the neighbourhood all their lives, the sisters viewed its imminent destruction as a blessing. When I returned to Egypt in June for the first time in 15 years, I struggled to recognise it. Photograph by Nick Hannes, Panos Pictures Although Sheikh Zayed City - 25 miles to the west of Cairo and named for the emir of Abu Dhabi who helped fund it in 1994 was originally planned as a mixed-income city, it quickly transformed as NUCA discovered the profit-making potential of land sales to developers. Deeper into the neighbourhood, I encountered two middle-age sisters, Magda and Fattem, who tended a tiny grocery store where residents dropped by throughout the day to grab whatever they needed and returned at midnight to pay their bills in cash. Their entire business and support system collapses. Its impressive but pint-size in comparison with the soon-to-be-constructed Oblisco Capitale. Fifty-one percent of the Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD), the company which oversees the project, is owned by the Egyptian military and the remaining 49 percent by the Ministry of Housing. The new capital of Egypt has yet to be given a name. He feels Egypts new capital stands a good chance of providing better employment opportunities than its predecessors, mainly because Egypts vast government will be relocated there. Between 1958 and 1971, the government of Egypt constructed a massive dam on the Upper Nile (the southern part of the river, near Egypt's border with Sudan). A model of the planned new capital was displayed for investors during the Egypt Economic Development Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh. While 10th of Ramadan and Egypts other first generation new cities were industrial at heart, a restructuring from the World Bank and IMF in the 1990s brought a radical shift in policy. Egypt builds a new capital city to replace Cairo - NBC News The city of New Cairo - in the desert 20 miles to the east of its namesake - was conceived in the late 1990s and established by presidential decree in 2000. A huge number of Cairenes will have their lives upended. Cairos population is forecast to double over the next 40 years. The most concerning thing to me was the speed at which this is intended to be built five to seven years. The new capital will be located 35 kilometers, or 21 miles, east of Cairo. According to NUCA, 650,000 residents live here. Population challenges aside, other potential motives for the move include a desire by President Sisi who came to power when the military took charge in 2011 to break from the past and make his mark in history, as well as efforts to stimulate the economy, which has remained sluggish since the events of the Arab Spring. Suddenly, the Mubarak regime had no legitimacy. . These 22 existing new towns some of them more than 30 years old still collectively hold little more than a million residents, and contain thousands of empty homes. Others are concerned about the potential implications for Cairo's historic capital. As one first-generation garage owner put it: The first few years here were the hardest thing Ive ever done. It is impossible to think of the new city without thinking of el-Sisi. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. The first 50,000 civil servants expected to relocate to the new capital from this summer will be offered shuttle buses to get there. How are you going to get the water? We are trying to solve all the problems we had in the past in the new capital, said Husseiny. Protesters took over the square on January 28, 2011, and created what they dubbed the Republic of Tahrir. Egypts old cities are crumbling to dust. Its not a beautiful place. But elsewhere in the UAE, the new city called Masdar (founded, incidentally, by the minister now driving Emirati investment in Egypt, Sultan al-Jaber) was supposed to house 50,000 people by now. I cant believe this is Egypt, she said. Four decades later, to relieve congested Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia moved its administrative and judicial offices two dozen miles south, to Putrajaya. All this brings to mind the regime of Hosni Mubarak and its fall. In terms of population, that would make it the biggest purpose-built capital in human history nearly as large as Islamabad (population: an estimated 1.8 million), Brasilia (2.8 million), and Canberra (380,000) put together. In response to these critics, the government said the city will eventually also include social housing, but provided no details as to when these units will be built and made available to those in need. "On average they earn EGP1,247 ($70) a week, last year the housing ministry listed apartment prices in the city at more than EGP11,000 ($698) per square meter.". New Cairo (Arabic: el-Qhera el-Gedda) is a satellite city in the Eastern Area of Cairo, Egypt, administered by the New Urban Communities Authority. Egypts new smart city will emphasise green energy and cashless payment systems. A new New Cairo: Egypt plans 30bn purpose-built capital in desert Cairo smells like pigs. A marketing manager welcomed the lack of shabby people. At the heart of the city, workers are putting finishing touches to an avenue of ministries that echo the architecture of pharaonic temples and adjoin a raised Islamic complex, two domed parliament buildings and a sprawling presidential compound. The city being built from scratch in the desert - so far called the New Administrative Capital - is designed to hold 6.5 million residents and is expected to open to its first civil servants later . There will be plenty of diversions too: museums, restaurants and shopping malls, a sumptuously marbled opera house, and a library collection of more than five million books. What is the new city in the Egyptian desert? We are not leaving Cairo, or Alexandria or Port Said or other provinces. Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster, Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. There is a demand to live there, but its a demand from a very specific group of people, and its not a very big demographic, says Nick Simcik Arese, an anthropologist at the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities, and a former resident of, and researcher in, the new desert town of Haram City. This government-induced mass migration is part of El Sisis greater remaking of Egypt, which involves relocating millions of citizens to newly constructed cities and developing an elaborate transportation network that will connect residents from Cairo to agricultural districts in the Nile Delta and all the way to the Mediterranean coast, 150 miles away. Just a few months later, Morsis opponents filled the same square to first call for and then celebrate his removal from power.