Make way for Egyptʹs New Administrative Capital
A city of some 20 million people combining charm and squalor, Cairo may soon witness an exodus by well-heeled residents, state employees and foreign embassies to the New Administrative Capital. By Hamza Hemdawi
A massive undertaking: the new city is being built on 170,000 acres about 28 miles east of Cairo and is nearly twice its size. Construction began in 2016, and the first of its forecast 6.5 million residents are scheduled to move there next year
The flight of the rich: billboards across Cairo advertise luxury homes with "breath-taking" views in compounds with names like "La Verde" or "Vinci" in Egypt's new capital that is under construction in the desert, miles from the Nile-side city which has been the seat of power for more than 1,000 years
The Presidentʹs pet project: the new capital – a proper name has yet to be found – is the $45 billion brainchild of Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the biggest of the mega-projects he has launched since taking office in 2014. He contends the projects, ranging from new roads and housing complexes to a Suez Canal expansion attract investors and create jobs
The needs of ordinary people: critics argue its cost could have been better put to rebuilding the wrecked economy and refurbishing Cairo. After all, what lies behind the billboards are Cairo's most overcrowded neighbourhoods, with shoddily built homes and dirt roads frequently inundated with sewage water
Wrong priorities: "Maybe Sisi wants to go down in history as the leader who built the new capital, 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," says political analyst Hassan Nafaa
Concerned about space: the government argues that Cairo is already bursting at the seams and will grow to 40 million by 2050. The city will house the presidency, Cabinet, parliament and ministries. Planners promise a 21-mile-long public park, an airport, an opera house, a sports complex and 20 skyscrapers, including Africa's highest, at 345 metres
For all Egyptians? The smallest apartment there – 120 square metres – is expected to cost 1.3 million Egyptian pounds ($73,000), out of reach for a mid-level bureaucrat, who may make the equivalent of about $4,800 a year. "Those targeted to live in the new capital constitute a very, very limited segment of society," says political analyst Hassan Nafaa
