A new crossing in Toshka
Egypt, Politics, 10/7/2000

Egypt's President Mubarak selected the time of his visit to Toshka to coincide with the celebrations of 1973 October War. This timing is extremely symbolic as it indicates the similarity between the actual crossing of the Suez Canal by our armed forces and achieving victory, and the figurative crossing of the Egyptian people led by Mubarak from the narrow Nile Valley and its limited potentialities to the vast deserts of Egypt which are now being fully exploited and thus may offer food, job opportunities and promising trading capabilities.

This new crossing does not only focus on Toshka in the Western Desert but also Sinai in the north-eastern part of Egypt. Sinai now is being completely transformed from a desert uninhabited peninsula into an industrialized populated area full of towns, villages, utilities, industrial zones, and promoted tourist sites. Thus, Toshka and Sinai represent the basis of the massive urbanization plan carried out by President Mubarak's Administration.

Concerning Toshka, rumors spread that the development projects implemented there are groundless scientifically and economically. Hence, El-Banna, Editor-in-Chief of the weekly October Magazine paid a visit there and discovered what is totally contrary to these rumors. Extensive and thorough studies have been conducted by international and local scientific establishments on the soil of Toshka. These studies ended up by classifying this soil into four types.

The first type is ìextremely reclaimable landsî as these lands proved to be of the best quality ,since they are also leveled , and reach the amount of 500,000 feddans. The second type is ìreclaimable landsî and reach the amount of 380,000 feddans. The third type is ìmedially reclaimableî ,since some parts of them are unleveled, and reach the amount of 120,000 feddans. The fourth type is ìlimitedly reclaimable landsî and reach the amount of 170,000 feddans. The fifth type is ìirreclaimable landsî.

This classification means the following: Firstly, soil studies were made in a very thorough and detailed way. Secondly, all facts are declared i.e. they are not hidden from the public opinion. Thirdly, There are more than 1,000,000 reclaimable feddans of different types.

El-Banna was also surprised to find out that three giant companies of huge capitals started to reclaim these lands although water will be available after a year and half. This fact refutes the allegations saying that the whole project is useless and hazardous for investment.

He also met the ex-Minister of Supplies Dr. Ahmed Gwaili, who is also a distinguished agro-economist, who told me that as a representative of a giant company named Al-Mamlaka Company for Agricultural Development, his company purchased 100,000 feddans, and dug a well and set up an experimental field on l000 feddans which gives promising results. The company also signed up a contract with the American Sun World Company to design, plan and implement the infrastructure.

There are other companies which have been assigned vast amounts of lands exceeding 200,000 feddans such as South Valley Agricultural Development Company and the Egyptian Company for Land Reclamation and Development.

He also was amazed at the progress of the work in the main lever station which is the biggest of its kind in the whole world. It consists of 21 units and its construction will last for 4 years from 1998 to 2002. It will cost 1480,000,000 LE. The power station will cost 20,000,000 LE. The total cost of the project is 5780,000,000 LE including 948,000,000 Le in foreign currency.

The land of the project is bustling with life now where 30750 feddans are already planted and 300 wells were dug. 250 km of bridges and internal roads were paved. The number of workers has exceeded 7000 including engineers, experts, and technicians. 630 km of the motorways were repaved. Utilities were constructed such as a giant fuel station, a first-aid post, and even a cellular phone station. Thus, the region became completely connected to the rest of the country. It became also inhabited as work is underway for the welfare of the Egyptian people.

Previous Stories:
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