Why Egypt's construction boom creates ghost towns
Egyptian leaders from Anwar to Sisi have attempted — and failed — to build lavish cities to relocate dense urban populations.
Located on Egypt’s northwest coast, New Alamein City is advertised as the “New Riviera” and the first of the “millennial cities.” The Egyptian government allocated 3 billion Egyptian pounds ($183.3 million) to create this city, which aims to host some 2 million people. The Ministry of Antiquities has even relocated the Ramses II obelisk from Cairo’s Zamalek neighborhood to the new city to give it a bit of grandeur. New Alamein is expected to be used as the government's summer residence, just like Sochi in Russia.
But will this city, despite the efforts, become one of Egypt's ghost cities — lavish but unpopulated?
Building cities is nothing new in Egypt. Former presidents, from Anwar Sadat to Hosni Mubarak, have encouraged building new cities to reduce urban encroachment on agricultural land and limit the growth of slums around cities. Most of these cities, unlike New Alamein, which is on the Mediterranean coast, have been in the desert, like Sadat City and 6th of October. New Cairo and the New Administrative Capital — designed to house parliament and many government buildings presently in Cairo — are both inland.
The strategy of building new cities has accelerated under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, David Sims, a Dutch economist and urban planner based in Cairo, told Al-Monitor.
