Delivery of residential units at Sinai's 1st smart city to begin in May

CAIRO – 26 April 2022: The engineer supervising constructions at New Rafah, Reda al-Abassiry, stated in a TV interview Monday that the delivery of the residential units at the first phase of Sinai's first smart city, New Rafah, will begin in May.

The number of flat-buildings within that phase is 41, which each consisting of 16 apartments. The surface area of each unit is 90 square meters, as they are offered to low-income citizens.

Abbassiry added that the third phase of the city will be completed in 2023, and that all of staff members working at the project are Sinai dwellers. As for utilities introduced, they include water treatment plant, wastewater treatment plant, roads, and transportation network.

Investments amounting to more than LE 700 billion were and are being implemented to develop the Sinai Peninsula over eight years, the Egyptian Cabinet said in a lengthy report.

The report was published by the Cabinet’s Media Center on Monday on the 40th anniversary of the Sinai Liberation Day.

On April 25 of every year, Egypt celebrates Sinai Liberation Day, as the last Israeli soldier left the peninsula and the Egyptian flag was raised on the turquoise land of Sinai on 25 April 1982.

Total public investments for Sinai and Suez Canal cities have amounted to LE 45.1 billion in 2021/2022, compared to LE 6.2 billion in 2013/2014, with an increase of 627.4%, the report said as it highlighted efforts to develop investment and industrial infrastructure to attract and encourage investors in Sinai and Canal cities.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency has funded 42.5 thousand of projects in Sinai at a cost of about LE 1.8 million until February 2022, the report said.

Also, the National Project for Community, Human and Local Development (Mashrou'ak) "Your Project" funded 5,428 projects until mid-April in North Sinai, Ismailia and Suez with a total investment of LE 5.5 million.

Concerning agricultural development in Sinai and the Canal cities, the most prominent agricultural projects included Sinai Development Project, where the total area is 1.1 million feddans (1 feddans equals 4,500 square meters), of which 239 thousand feddans were cultivated until the end of March 2022. A total of 18 agricultural clusters were established with a total of 2,122 beneficiaries, the report said.