For nearly 1,000 years, Cairo has served as the Capital of Egypt. But, now the government is all set to ditch the ancient capital city and build a glitzy and modern capital instead. Pollution, increasing population, soaring rents and the never ending traffic has forced the government into planning an entirely new capital for the country.
Egypt is teaming up with a UAE based developer to build a city, which will be considered to be the world’s most ambitious programs. The new capital is expected to be ready in just 7 years. It will be almost as big as Denver, and will be home to nearly 7 million people. The city will be spread over an area of 150 square miles.
The exact location of the new capital city has not yet been announced, but most probably, the city is expected to be built to the east of Cairo. It will be situated closer to the Red sea and will be between the two major highways, namely, the Ain Sokhna Roads and the Suez.
The new capital city will have an airport bigger than the Heathrow. Also, 2,000 schools, 18 hospitals and 40,000 hotel rooms will be linked by 6,000 miles of new roads. The total estimated cost to build the glimmering new capital city will be around U.S. $45 billion.
Egypt is not the first country to shift its capital from Cairo to a new one. There have been changes in the capitals of other countries as well. Only recently, Myanmar shifted its capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw. In the 1990s, Nigeria changed its capital to Abuja. And, over 50 years ago, Brazil out of the wilderness formed its capital Brasilia.
