Egypt's state-run Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD), the master developer of the New Capital, decided on Sunday that foreign firms will manage and operate services inside the city. Chairman of ACUD Ahmed Zaki Abdeen told Egypt Today that the company will sign contracts with Chinese and Dutch companies to operate internal transportation inside the new city and to be responsible for the establishment of private companies specialized in collecting garbage and keeping the city clean. Abdeen added that the company will also sign contracts with French companies to manage companies operating in the fields of technology, electricity, water and buildings' maintenance inside the city, noting that the companies will offer tenders to choose the best offers. "ACUD will be turned into a holding company with subsidiaries operating in different fields, as companies of water, electricity, technology, maintenance, safety, and transportation will be founded," he stated. Abdeen also said that the New Capital will also include factories for recycling garbage. According to Abdeen, the goal of establishing these companies is to preserve the independence of the national project, adding that the electricity company will be the first to be responsible for feeding the city with electricity and issuing bills; new plants will be established if necessary. As per the Water Company, it will be responsible for issuing bills and feeding the city with water, he said, adding that gas, telecom, and transportation firms will be founded. "To avoid bureaucracy, all established companies will be following ACUD Holding Company as the solo company responsible for managing this independent entity," Abdeen noted. The chairman of ACUD said that metro stations will be built inside the city to link all stages of the city together, passing by the government district, the residential district, money, and business district and all other stages of the project. Abdeen clarified that there will be coordination with these foreign companies to qualify leaders, employees, engineers and technicians from the administrative capital company to prepare a second row capable of leading all the capital's companies when the foreign companies end their contracts within three or four years. President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has laid the first stone of the New Administrative Capital in East Cairo on July, 14. With an area of 170,000 feddans, the new capital will include 20 residential areas expected to accommodate 6.5 million people and a road network of 650km in length. The new capital will include an international airport and an electric train to link it with the 10th of Ramadan and El-Salam cities. The city will feature 1,250 mosques and churches, a 5,000-seat conference centre, nearly 2,000 schools and colleges, over 600 medical facilities, and a park that is projected to be the world's largest. The New Administrative Capital is located in the area between the Cairo-Suez and Cairo-Ain Sokhna roads, east of the regional ring road. This is roughly 60km from the cities of Suez and Ain Sokhna.
