CAIRO …quot; The Desert Development Corridor in Egypt needs $12 billion for implementation, Egyptian scientist Farouq el-Baz said on Tuesday, according to Al-Youm Al-Sabie. El-Baz, who suggested the project a few years ago, added that the Egyptian Government is not expected to finance the project which could be rather carried out by a local investment fund in which all Egyptians could be shareholders. The project is located west of the Nile stretching from the Mediterranean, all the way to the border with Sudan . This is a space for Egyptians to build towns and villages, to launch agricultural and trade activities and to develop industries so that they would have more living facilities, he elaborated. El-Baz said the project is apt to help Egyptians reclaim about one million feddans of land inside the desert to swallow the overpopulation, by the end of 2050, estimates to reach about 145 million. He expects, according to accurate studies,that the proposed superhighway would limit urban encroachment over agricultural land and open myriad opportunities for new communities close to over-populated towns. It also affords unlimited potential for new schools and training centers, industrial zones, trade centers, tourism; providing virgin territory for development initiatives in every field, el-Baz said.