Egypt unveils plan for desert city in latest mega project

A group of camels and horses stand idle in front of the Great Pyramids awaiting tourists in Giza, Egypt on March 29, 2017. [FILE]

Egypt on Sunday unveiled plans for a vast new urban development west of Cairo where a man-made channel of the River Nile will eventually wind through what was once arid desert.

The new city, named Jirian, meaning "Flow" in Arabic, is part of Egypt's Nile Delta scheme, a massive agricultural initiative aiming to reclaim about 2.5 million acres west of the original Nile Delta.

The ambitious agricultural project, which started in 2021, seeks to boost production of strategic crops such as wheat and corn while reducing the North African country's food import bill.

The project is the latest in a string of mega projects launched by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in recent years, including a new administrative capital east of Cairo.

While officials say these projects are key to Egypt's long-term growth, they have also contributed to the country's soaring foreign debt, which quadrupled since 2015 to reach $155.2 billion (Sh20 trillion) by late 2024.

The country has also received billions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union to ensure its financial stability, with the EU pledging billions more last month.

At a launch event on Sunday, Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli called the Jirian project "an urban and development revolution".

He added that it would create 250,000 jobs and serve as the cornerstone of a wider development zone equivalent in size to four to five governorates.

"We are talking about full-spectrum development," he told reporters, describing a sprawling urban zone that will include industry, logistics hubs and homes for "between 2.5 and three million families".

Irrigation source

The government did not disclose the total cost of the project, which is being developed in partnership with three major Egyptian real estate firms.

The new Nile Delta project comes at a time when Egypt is already under pressure to secure its water future.

With 97 per cent of its fresh water sourced from the Nile, the country has been locked in a years-long dispute with Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo fears could reduce downstream water flows.

Developers said that a canal connected to the Nile will run through the heart of the 1,680-acre Jirian city, occupying a fifth of its total area and serving both as a scenic centrepiece and an irrigation source for surrounding farmland.

The project will feature luxury residences, 80-storey skyscrapers, international universities and hospitals, an eco-friendly hotel, commercial zones as well as a cultural and media district, they added.

It will also lie just minutes away from the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is due to fully open in July, the Giza Pyramids and the nearby Sphinx International Airport.

Construction began five months ago and is expected to be completed within five years, according to the project's developers.