The $60 billion city is being built 45km east of Cairo, will span 700 square kilometres (the size of Singapore), and is planned to replace Cairo’s capital city status, which has been in place since 950 AD. The city is promised to provide a “new lifestyle, new community and a new worldwide centre of attraction”. The city will act as the primary hub for the government, with the majority of workers relocating to the new city, including the president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, in 2019. 
With the 18 million population of Cairo expected to double in the next 40 years, the time was right to create a new city. “Cairo isn’t suitable for the Egyptian people, there are traffic jams on every street, the infrastructure can’t support the population, and it’s very crowded," project spokesman Khaled El-Husseiny said. “Without any specific masterplan, it has started to become ugly. There’s no humanity.” 
The city will feature over 2000 schools, 600 medical facilities, 18 hospitals and 40,000 hotel spaces, and is expected to hold five to seven million people. In addition to these facilities, there are plans for an airport, opera house, ministerial office blocks, a business quarter and a diplomacy district. The plans show a metropolis filled with green spaces, widespread vegetation, sleek and modern residential and community buildings, and plenty of retail and entertainment precincts and eateries. 
The city will also include a colossal 20-skyscraper development, to be developed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation. One of the skyscrapers will rise 345 metres high and will be Africa’s tallest building, to be placed as a landmark in the city centre. The city will become a new world capital and create an impact on cities across the world. 
The city has given rise to much criticism from the Egyptian population, who have been calling it a waste of resources and are expressing concerns regarding the speed at which the city is intended to be built, potentially seeing significant safety shortcuts being taken.
In addition to this, the capital will further drain Cairo’s resources. Money will be pulled out of projects that are desperately needed to revitalise parts of Cairo and two water stations are to be built that will siphon extensive water from nearby cities, thereby decreasing the water that is currently available for Cairo. 
Prices for the residential areas have already been established, raising further concerns about the nature of the city being a place for only the very wealthy and connected to even have a hope of living there.
El-Husseiny is adamant in the plans for the new city and is determined to see it become a shining beacon of the future for cities around the world. “We need this,” he said in a statement. “It costs billions, we know, but we need it. We will give [the government employees and new residents] benefits not available in the old Cairo, wide streets and a smart city. A smart city means a safe city, with cameras and sensors everywhere. There will be a command centre to control the entire city. 
“We need a landmark, a new capital. We have the right to have a dream and this is our dream.”