Shaq El-Tho’ban: Know more about Egypt’s City of Marble & Granite

CAIRO - 6 August 2022: Shaq El-Tho’ban area, south of Cairo, is considered one of the important investment areas specialized in the marble industry. 

The area is an important and globally classified site, and is currently witnessing development work within the state’s plan to transform it into a city of marble and granite, where the services provided to investors are promoted, problems are solved, utilities are completed, and the conditions of factory owners are legalized, as the entire region is considered state property.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi directed the comprehensive development of the Shaq El-Tho’ban area, and transforming it into an integrated area under the name “City of Marble and Granite”, so that it is environmentally-friendly and deals with solid waste in a safe and scientific manner, within the framework of the state’s efforts to develop local industries as well as reduce environmental pollution.

Paying the necessary attention to raising the efficiency of the infrastructure in the region to develop the various services in it, including electricity, water, sewage, and electric nutrition, and to develop the network of the surrounding main axes and its secondary roads.

A grand scheme implemented by the state in the Shaq El-Tho’ban area starts from the entrance of the area, paving the roads leading to the area, and constructing new roads that can bear the heavy weight of transport vehicles loaded with marble blocks, utilities, electricity and water networks.

Engineer Jihan Abdel Moneim, Deputy Governor of Cairo for the Southern Region, confirmed that the urgent phase works are currently being implemented, including the establishment of a link to transport heavy transport traffic from the Autostrad to the Middle Ring Road, 7 km long, at a cost of 250 million pounds, and paving concrete to bear weights.

The transport vehicles are loaded with marble blocks, and a stolon area has been implemented to accommodate the cars and the movement of the trade in buying marble blocks inside Shaq Al-Ethaban, and the services are currently being completed.

Jihan Abdel Moneim explained that the landmarks of the Shaq El-Tho’ban area have been identified from all directions, and the connections for the facilities have been completed.

Recently, the “Sahala” marble manufacturing waste recycling plant was operated. It was also agreed with a number of ceramic factories to recycle marble manufacturing waste, and use it to produce interlock tiles, which are reused in paving roads.

The area is one of the most important marble exporting areas. The Shaq El-Tho’ban area is located east of the Autostrad road, at a depth of 5 km, to the borders of the Wadi Degla Protectorate in the east, in the Tora Maadi area. It is located on an area of ​​1,608 acres with an estimated area of ​​6.5 million square meters along the frontage on the motorway 1.8 km long, and contains 2,525 factories and workshops for manufacturing and exporting marble that comes to it from the quarries of Ras Ghareb, Ain Sukhna, Minya and Jabal El Galala in Suez, the Red Sea and Aswan.

A school and institute are also being established to graduate trained technical workers, a dry port and a service area that includes branches of various banks and shipping agencies, and a logistics area that includes shipping and unloading offices, an exhibition area, an ambulance and fire station, a police station, and factories for recycling industrial waste to benefit from.

For his part, Major General Khaled Abdel Aal, Governor of Cairo, confirmed that the conditions of factories and workshops are being legalized in the Shaq Al-Thaaban Industrial Zone and handed over documented contracts.

Abdel Aal added that the main objective of developing the region is to contribute to increasing production and investments, maximizing state resources, creating additional job opportunities, overcoming all obstacles facing investors in the region, achieving the necessary stability and improving infrastructure and facilities.