As much as 35 per cent of the Nile island of Al Warraq will be made up of public green space that will be open to Egyptians from all walks of life. The island has been the subject of much contention over the past two weeks after the government’s efforts to evict the island’s residents to make way for a large-scale development project that will transform the island into a luxurious upmarket district.
Furthermore, under the new development plan, 30 per cent of the island will be designated residential units while the rest will be used for “hotels in addition to other commercial and cultural entities”, according to Akher El Nahar, by Abdul Khalek Ibrahim, Deputy Housing Minister for Technical Affairs.
The housing minister said that because of the differences in land value between the strategic Nile Island and Sadat City, every feddan (4,200 sq mt) of land taken from a resident on Al Warraq would be compensated with 16 feddans in Sadat. Additionally, he said that residents who did not want to be compensated with land were given six million Egyptian pounds for every feddan taken by the government on Al Warraq.