By Mohamed Darwish The Central Authority for Housing (CAH) concluded the development of 153 villages at the beginning of the month, costing EGP 2.5 billion. The development rate in 373 villages reached 45%, costing EGP 3.5 billion in the Sohag, Assuit, Qena, Luxor and Menya governorates. General Mahmoud El-Maghawry, Director of the CAH, said that finishing the remainder of the one thousand villages will bring EGP 5.5 billion in costs. The project is expected to end by June 2017, and the CAH is accelerating operation processes ahead of schedule, he added. In addition, the project development target is 25% of Egyptian villages. El-Maghawry confirmed that CAH only supervises and monitors construction accomplishments, and that the public budget allocated funds for the project every year. In addition, construction accomplishments have not been impacted by political strikes after the revolution. El-Maghawry added that the new Ministry of Utilities (MOU) coded the one-thousand-village development as project A, so that it can be listed in the Ministry's budget and implemented accordingly. The new MOU was established under Dr. Hesham Qandil's cabinet. CAH assigned the code for the MOU in order to carry out water and sewage projects, he explained. In addition, a number of ministries including the Housing, Health, and Education Ministries are participating in implementing the project and allocating a portion of their budgets under code A to implement the construction. Furthermore, after the MOU was established, water and sewage projects were transferred to it from the MOH. Expenses for the rest of the water and sewage projects are being budgeted, El-Maghawry added.
