Chairman of the New Administrative Capital Ahmed Zaki Abdeen said the New Administrative Capital is a qualitative leap and a successful model that will be applied to 13 new cities.

In an interview with Board Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Middle East News Agency Ali Hassan, Abdeen said all potentials will be exploited to facilitate the movement of citizens from Cairo to the New Administrative Capital.

Abdeen also reviewed projects that are being carried out in the New Administrative Capital.

He further underlined that local and foreign investments in the New Administrative Capital reflected the foreign investors' great trust in carrying out projects there.

The long and extended history of "Cairo" as the historical capital of Egypt increased its burden, particularly in light of the overpopulation and traffic congestion that have long cast a shadow over the capital city of Cairo and stifled the movement there, he said.

The Armed Forces Engineering Authority's role in the New Administrative Capital is mainly maintaining the pace of work and not implementing projects there, he made it clear.

There are 37 companies operating in the projects, with more than 150,000 workers, Abdeen said.

The Planning Ministry is working with other ministries to move the main cadres to the New Administrative Capital, he said. The ministries' headquarters will be relocated to the new capital by June 30, 2019, he added. 

Three giant power plants will be built to serve the New Administrative Capital, he said, adding they will be finalized in less than one year. 

Currently, the under-construction New Administrative Capital depends on the 10th of Ramadan City water station that supplied the new capital with 100,000 cubic meters of water, he said.

He added that 60 percent of high-capacity roads were constructed in the New Administrative Capital as per international standards.

For the first time, "utility tunnels" will be set up in the New Administrative Capital. The utility tunnel or utilidor is a passage built above ground to carry utility lines, such as electricity, steam, water supply pipes and sewer pipes.

Also, schools, mosques, a church, and a postal office will be finalized in the residential compound in the New Administrative Capital by the end of 2018. 

The city is planned to consist of residential districts, man-made lakes, educational institutions, hospitals and clinics, mosques, 40,000 hotel rooms, a major theme park, 91 square kilometers of solar energy farms, and a new international airport to be established on an area of 16 kilometers. It will be built as a smart city. 

An electric rail line linking the Cairo suburb of Al-Salam City with the New Administrative Capital will be built. Studies are also underway to establish a "monorail" that will connect Nasr City with New Cairo and the New Administrative Capital. 

It is also planned to relocate the parliament, presidential palaces, 18 ministries and foreign embassies to the New Administrative capital.

Source: MENA