Egyptian PM to meet with committee setting new construction conditions: sources

CAIRO – 11 October 2020: Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli will hold a meeting within few days with the national committee concerned with setting conditions for the construction of housing buildings, sources told Egypt Today.

Egypt late in May announced a six-month ban on construction permits in Greater Cairo and Alexandria, in response to continuous building violations. Late in September, the government said citizens having permits can continue constructing their buildings up to the forth floor.

Madbouli directed the ministers and concerned authorities during an earlier cabinet meeting to expedite the completion of the new code of conditions, in order for the construction work to be restored.

Among the most prominent conditions is suspending construction in some areas in the capitals of governorates and crowded cities for a specific period of time, and not allowing the construction of any residential buildings in these citis, in order to prevent these areas from becoming overpopulated.

The new construction requirements are also expected to include setting the number of floors allowed for each building, based on the width of the street where a building is located and the capacity of the infrastructure, so that to avoid infrastructure problems.

While inaugurating a number of national projects in Alexandria in August via video-conference, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi warned of the 100-year impact of the delay in developmental projects, and illegal constructions that are ubiquitous in Egypt.

Sisi warned of the repercussions of constructions on agricultural lands and unlicensed constructions in general describing them as “a threat to the Egyptian state.”

"Officials who aren’t able to impose order by dealing with construction violations have to resign. We don’t afford to lose large areas of agricultural lands in that rapid rate," President Sisi asserted.

"We have got a necessary amount of engineering machinery that can eliminate all unlicensed buildings constructed on agricultural lands across Egypt," President Sisi stressed.

In the same context, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli stated that until present, 700,000 construction violations have been committed. "Only 10 percent of constructions violations have been reconciled," President Sisi revealed expressing dismay.

Additional reporting by Noha Al Tawil