Egyptian PM inspects housing project for slums residents worth EGP 1.7 bln

Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly inspected a housing project that is under construction in El-Salam City, east of Cairo, with a total cost of 1.7 Egyptian pounds ($ 11 million), said a Cabinet statement.

The project, covering an area of 230 feddans and designated to accommodate slum residents, boasts 134 buildings—including 4,800 housing units, 475 administrative units, and 292 business units.

Up to 55 percent of the project has been completed under the supervision of the country’s Urban Communities Authority, the statement added.

Madbouly ordered surmounting all obstacles to complete the project in order to hand over the units to people sooner.

The prime minister was accompanied by Minister of Housing Assem El-Gazzar, Social Solidarity Minister Nevine Al-Qabbaj, and Cairo Governor Khalid Abdel-Aal, among others.

Egypt has been pushing forward with efforts to re-house residents of unsafe areas as part of the country’s plan to put an end to the problem of informal residential areas countrywide by 2030.

The phenomenon of informal settlements was first put in the national spotlight in 2008 following the collapse of a rock face on the edge of Moqattam, which led to the deaths and injury of scores of people living in the Doueyka area and highlighted the urgency of addressing housing challenges.

According to government officials, informal settlements in Egypt constitute around 40 percent of the country’s urban areas.

Many housing projects have been implemented recently to serve the state’s plan, including the 185-feddan Al-Asmarat city, which was inaugurated by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in July 2020, in addition to other projects.