Egyptian construction companies can develop the Capital Cairo project in five years, not in one year as declared by media outlets, said Hassan Abdel Aziz, head of the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors (EFCBC).
Abdel Aziz told Daily News Egypt that Capital Cairo can be developed in five stages, every stage in one year, beginning by the infrastructure and road projects, drilling, concrete, building foundations.
Abdel Aziz noted that, in the case Al-Abbar was unable to fund the new administrative capital, the government can request banks and Egyptians to fund this mega project.
“The first stage only needs money, but the other stages could be funded by the real estate development companies by facilitating lands and selling them,” said Abdel Aziz. “After selecting the winner alliance to set the master plan for the Capital Cairo project, the implementation will start immediately and the constructing companies are ready.”
Abdel Aziz said that the candidate 50 companies could develop the project by efficient management like the New Suez Canal project.
He added that the drilling of the Suez Canal was done through small and medium-sized construction companies, but the dredging was done through large foreign and Egyptian companies.
Abdel Aziz noted that these companies succeeded because of good management and speed in solving problems besides the commitment to pay the workers’ salaries, unlike some administrative agencies in the government.
Meanwhile, Dakker Abdellah, a member of the Egyptian Businessmen’s Association and the EFCBC, said that major real estate development companies operating in Egypt have the ability, the development experience and the technical capacities to develop large areas in the new administrative capital project. They would also be able to accelerate its achievement in a short time.
The New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) allocated EGP 5bn in the current budget for fiscal year (FY) 2015/2016 for the Capital Cairo project.
The new administrative capital officially debuted in Sharm El-Sheikh’s Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC), as the country’s latest mega-project, with a total cost of $45bn and an area of 700 sqm.
The population capacity of the new administrative capital is five million people and will include a cosmopolitan city, 25 neighbourhoods, roads that are 250 km in length, an airport, a presidential palace and parliament headquarters. In addition, it aims to provide 1.7m jobs.