Egyptian Minister of Housing Assem el Gazzar said that Cairo has a population density of 500 people per feddan and Giza of 100 people per feddan, with construction rate hitting 70 per cent.
Because of many years of unplanned urban expansion, green and open areas in Cairo and Giza dwindled and random construction rates went up while rates of roads declined to less than 20 per cent which has led to overcrowding and congestion, he said.
The minister made the remarks on Wednesday during the inauguration of a number of national projects in the fields of housing and roads in Sheikh Zayed City and 6th of October in the presence of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
Gazzar underlined that traffic congestion results in overcrowding and more carbon emissions, doubling the time taken in daily road trips and reducing the average of speed on traffic axes to 30km/hour.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said that if Cairo continues this way it will be announced as a “dead city”, where speed on main axes drops to less than 10km/hour, thus becoming an inadequate urban environment for business and living of population, the minister said.
The housing minister said that his ministry has identified targets to develop urban environment and improve the quality of life, adding that Cairo has a population density of 500 people per feddan that is targeted to be brought down to 250 people per feddan.
This could be achieved via establishing more new urban communities and changing the current urban planning system, Gazzar noted.
The minister said that the construction rate is targeted to drop to 50 per cent, therefore his ministry has set new planning and building requirements to ensure governance in the urban planning field in Cairo.
The housing ministry is working to increase the rates of roads to 30 per cent via upgrading and widening them, a fact that explains the importance attached by the Egyptian government to building a large number of roads and bridges, he added
