Developing Egypt’s unsafe areas to end by June 30: MP

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Tue, 19 Feb 2019 - 09:45 GMT

BY

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 - 09:45 GMT

Members of Parliament start voting on the newly-proposed amendments to the 2014 Constitution on Thursday- Egypt Today/Hazem abdel-Samad

Members of Parliament start voting on the newly-proposed amendments to the 2014 Constitution on Thursday- Egypt Today/Hazem abdel-Samad

CAIRO – 19 February 2019: Developing Egypt’s unsafe informal areas is expected to end by June 30, according to parliamentarian Amr Abu al-Yazeid's statements to Egypt today on Monday.

The MP explained that he met with Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development, Assem el-Gazzar, where they discussed the government’s efforts to develop slums and unsafe areas.

During the meeting, Gazzar informed Abu al-Yazeid of the ministry’s plan for the next period, stressing finishing the development plan by next June.

In December 2018, Wael Ezzat, head of Central Administration for Development Projects in the Council of Ministers' Slum Development Fund, announced that the unsafe informal areas across Egypt will be developed by the end of 2019.

“We are implementing a specific strategy and a national plan [to develop Egypt’s slums],” Ezzat referred during an interview with “This Morning” program on Extra News channel.

Previously, Khaled Siddiq, executive director of the Development Fund for Slums, said that Egypt will be declared a slum-free country by the end of 2019, referring that around LE 14 billion have been allocated until now for developing 80 percent of the slums.

Siddiq added that the total number of Egypt’s slums is 351 areas; 80 percent of which has been finished in the past four years and the remaining 20 percent will be developed by the end of 2019.

He further remarked that Port Said, Wadi El-Gedid, Fayoum, Menoufia and Suez were announced slum-free cities by the end of 2018, pointing out that 215,000 housing units were developed in these areas.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has sought to tackle housing problems in Egypt, and a plan was set to develop many unsafe areas in Cairo, which has the majority of Egypt’s slums, and to re-house residents of Egypt’s most dangerous slums. The government divided the slums into two categories. The first is the dangerous slums; the government pledged to eliminate dangerous slums by the end of 2018.

In this regard, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly witnessed on July 9 the signing ceremony of two cooperation protocols between Cairo governorate and the New Urban Communities Authority.

In May 2016, President Sisi promised to move all those living in slums to new flats over three years as part of an ambitious project expected to cost about LE 14 billion ($790 million).

In the same context, the Tahya Misr (Long Live Egypt) Fund, launched by Sisi in 2014, has been working on a three-phase strategy to eliminate Egypt’s shantytowns and re-house slum residents, including those living in Doueyka, Establ Antar and Ezbet Khair Allah.

The project includes 15,000 housing units to re-house 60,000 slum residents. The first two phases of Tahya Misr are comprised of 12,000 flats. The third phase opened in 2017 and is comprised of 20,000 flats.

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