CAIRO: The bill for eliminating slums in Egypt will be 40 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.55 billion), and the completion of the scheme will be celebrated on Wednesday, Director of the Slum Development Fund Khaled Siddik has announced.
Siddik said that 357 areas and 1,105 markets had been identified for redevelopment, and construction of the last 45,000 housing units would be completed within two months.
The fund director said that 21 percent of the residents of the Maspero Triangle had elected to return to the area and they had been given a choice of three housing options.
Siddik said that a future plan had been drawn up to develop the unplanned areas and Islamic Cairo.
A study was also underway to change the name of the fund to the Civilization Development Fund, and an initial cost of EGP 17 billion had been set aside for eliminating slums, he said.
With the start of slum redevelopment there had been a stronger desire to provide improved facilities — characterized by all the services that citizens needed to lead a decent life. This had raised the cost of the scheme to 24 billion Egyptian pounds.
The flotation of the pound had caused an increase in cost to 32 billion Egyptian pounds, and the bill for eliminating slums and unsafe areas had eventually amounted to 40 billion Egyptian pounds.
As for the alternative housing projects for the slums that had been completed, Siddik said that the Al-Asmarat project — with its three phases — had a total of 18,200 housing units, costing 3.6 billion Egyptian pounds.
He also listed Al-Mahrousa project, which included 4,912 units, costing more than 1.3 billion Egyptian pounds, and Rawdat Al-Sayeda Zeinab project (formerly Tel Al-Aqrab) which included 816 units, costing 330 million Egyptian pounds, and the Ahalina 1 project, which included 1,096 units, costing 640 million Egyptian pounds.
Sadik said that the (Ahalina 2) project included 1,400 units, costing 840 million Egyptian pounds, and the (Bashayer Al-Khair 1, 2, 3) project included 15,000 units, at a cost of more than 4 billion Egyptian pounds.
In addition, the fishermen’s village in Ras El-Bar area, and the Red Sea projects in Safaga, El-Qusair, Ras Ghareb and Hurghada, had 1,600 units, costing more than 1.3 billion Egyptian pounds.
He also referred to the Tabia project in Marsa Matrouh, Lemital in the New Valley, and Halayeb and Shalateen with 2,000 housing units.
The development of Islamic Cairo has recently been commissioned, and plans and consultations have begun to start implementation on the ground.
