The head of the National Organization for Urban Harmony (NOUH) in Egypt Mohamed Abu-Saada stressed that government offices in Cairo’s downtown are not for sale.
During a phone interview with TV host Amr Adib on the “al-Hekaya” (The Story) show, Abu-Saada added that: “All buildings are for management and operation for specific periods in partnership with investors, and none of the ministries’ buildings located in downtown or on the Nile will be sold. They will be reused and employed in partnership with the private sector.”
He noted that these standards will be put in place for any investor who will deal with them, so that they are used while preserving their historical components.
The heart of Cairo
Abu-Saada said that the downtown in any country is its historical heart and a tourist destination.
He stressed that Egypt has two important parts in the heart of Cairo, which are Historic Cairo and Khedivial Cairo.
Abu-Saada said that all government buildings that occupy palaces and buildings of great historical value were transferred to the New Administrative Capital, so there is an opportunity to re-exploit them for tourism and culture.
He continued: “Anyone who goes down to downtown will find major development work being done to the facades of buildings and removing the distortions, to restore the value of these buildings again, even though they are not historical buildings, but they are buildings with a distinctive architectural character.”
Abu-Saada confirmed that all these buildings are being re-planned through re-employing the ministries square, with pedestrian walkways and studying traffic movement.
He explained that there are buildings registered with a distinctive architectural style, and therefore have standards for dealing with them so that they can be properly reused, and the facades of these buildings are preserved from the outside.
