Al-Sisi to build a new egyptian capital... in the middle of nowhere... for $45+ billion

[DetlefK]

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/16/new-cairo-egypt-plans-capital-city-desert

The as yet unnamed new capital will be built from scratch with oil-money from middle-eastern investors.

"The scale of the plans certainly defy historical norms. If completed, the currently nameless city would span 700 sq km (a space almost as big as Singapore), house a park double the size of New York’s Central Park, and a theme park four times as big as Disneyland – all to be completed within five to seven years.

According to the brochure, there will be exactly 21 residential districts, 25 “dedicated districts”, 663 hospitals and clinics, 1,250 mosques and churches, and 1.1m homes housing at least five million residents."

It is to be built over a span of just 7 years... In the middle of nowhere between Cairo and the Suez-canal.

"David Sims, a Cairo-based urban planner, has spent years cataloguing the failures of Egypt’s satellite cities, culminating in last week’s well-timed publication of his latest book – Egypt’s Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster? Sims leans towards the latter.

“It’s just a bunch of crazy figures,” he says. “The scale is huge, and there are questions like: how are you going to do the infrastructure? How are you going to get the water? How will they move all these ministries? In other words, I think it’s just desperation. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it, but I rather doubt it.”"

"“What happens to the waste of this city, where does its energy come from? You have to ask whether these ideas are built into the concept or not,” says Girardet, who sets out a vision for green urban planning in his new book Creative Regenerative Cities. “It’s true that Cairo as a city is massively congested, and there is probably a need for a new capital city. But it seems to me that it would be a city driven above all else by developers keen to create prestige, rather than long-term sustainability.”"






Do you want to know the REAL reason for this new capital?

"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. “We are committed for the first phase,” he says. “We have already a very clear plan.”"

...

"The reason earlier desert settlements failed to attract residents is largely due to a lack of infrastructure and employment. Places like New Cairo have not provided enough jobs for poorer residents, or affordable transport to areas where they could find more work. “There is a demand to live there, but it’s a demand from a very specific group of people, and it’s 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. “People do want to abandon Cairo and live in their secessionary envelope. But to do that you need a car, and that means you have to have a certain income to live there.”"

...

"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 argument’s sake, that the 5 million inhabitants will actually be moved from overcrowded city, what will happen to the rest of us?”

The fear is that Egypt’s capital, if it gets built, will be just as exclusive and private a city as al-Qahera was when it began back in 969."






A brand-new city, not built for sustainability or masses of poor residents, but with the specific purpose to house the elite of a country ruled by a military dictatorship.

[underpants]

1. Sounds to me like they are moving away from the water

How many dedicated no-go zones will there be?

[pipoman]

2. This is a play for the traffic of Dubai...

Like Dubai, I suspect there will be human rights violations and slavery not seen since the 19th century....and the UN will sit on their hands as they have in Dubai...

[hack89]

3. Will it have pyramids? It has to have pyramids. Even modern Pharaohs need them. nt

[DetlefK]

6. Well, not in New New Cairo.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/17/egypt-pyramid-skyscraper_n_6882760.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2991214/There-s-new-pyramid-town-Egypt-unveils-plans-colossal-656ft-skyscraper-shaped-like-iconic-Giza-landmarks.html

[cali]

4. and he's asking that U.S. aid be fully reinstated.

[whatthehey]

5. pfft old hat. Akenhaten went there did that and had workers make him the T shirt.

[jakeXT]

7. A bird ? Or maybe Isis or something else ?

[kelliekat44]

8. A truly illegal dictator and yet another one that we support. nt