KABUL: (Middle East Press) Egypt is planning to form a new executive and business capital east of Cairo that will house five million people, said a minister at a global investor conference.
Housing Minister Mustafa Kamel Madbuli stated that the new capital would release pressure on overcrowded Cairo, with almost 18 million population to double in coming decades.
“The idea to shape the new city originated from our awareness that Cairo’s current population will double in the next 40 years,” Madbuli said Friday in a presentation showcasing the details.
The new city would have large green spaces and provide a better standard of living, an international airport, a theme park four times bigger than Disneyland in California, 90 square kilometers of solar farms, and an electric train” to link with Cairo, Madbuli added.
Parliament, presidential palaces, government ministries and foreign embassies would move to the new conurbation, the minister said, adding these projects would be executed over the next five to seven years at a cost of $45 billion.
The plans were presented at a three-day investor conference which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hopes will help kick-start Egypt’s troubled economy.
