INCREDIBLE satellite images show Egypt’s brand-new capital city being built in the middle of the desert that will house more than six million people.
The New Administrative Capital (NAC) will cover an area about the size of Singapore and will have Egyptian government offices, major financial districts and tall buildings including a 77-storey skyscraper.
It will steal the title from Cairo – the current capital – which has long been hit by many problems including rising population, congestion and pollution.
In 2015, the Egyptian government announced they would build a brand-new capital for the country in a desert that is some 28 miles east of Cairo.
The new city was pitched as their solution for Egypt‘s rising population.
Satellite pictures taken by NASA‘s Operational Land Imager (OLI) now show progress in construction in August 2024.
Another satellite picture taken in 2017 shows traces of initial construction.
The expansion of the New Administrative Capital is evident in the recent image.
Elsewhere, a satellite image from 1984 shows the new location barren and untouched, while in September 2019 progress can be seen.
Landmark locations planned for the city include a central park with artificial lakes, some 2,000 educational institutions, 18 hospitals and more than a thousand religious attractions.
As a smart city, some 6,000 cameras will be installed to monitor the streets and authorities will use AI to manage the city.
And a stadium with more than 90,000 seat capacity will be built along with a sprawling sports complex as Egypt plans to host the 2036 Olympic games.
While a major theme park four times the size of Disneyland will also be built inside the city.
As of March 2024, more than 1,500 families had moved to the city, according to news reports, with that number expected to reach 10,000 by the end of the year.
Government ministries are relocating, the parliament began meeting in its new building, and several banks and businesses were slated to move their headquarters there.
The NAC is being built as part of a larger economic development under plans for the Egypt Vision 2030.
Approximately 95 per cent of Egypt’s population lives within 20 kilometres of the Nile River and its delta, reliant on its fertile land and water.
In addition to building upward and outward along the fertile floodplain of the Nile River, authorities are also developing several new satellite cities built on desert plains.
Cairo’s population has grown from about 8 million to over 22 million since 1984, and this near-tripling of the population has dramatically changed the city’s footprint.
But critics say a growing socio-economic gap between the New Capital and old Cairo could have negative effects.
By Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter
This New Administrative Capital (NAC) is part of President Al-Sisi’s Egypt Vision 2030, a long-term plan to develop Egypt.
Egypt Vision 2030 seems to be a prestigious political project aimed at the expansion of the power apparatus, surveillance and global leadership.
The plan strategically focuses on eight main objectives that are meant to be met by the end of this decade. These include
In line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs), the Egypt Vision 2030 plans to collaborate between all the government ministries and private sector industries to improve Egypt’s infrastructure and tackle population growth.
