Egypt unveils plan for new desert city in latest megaproject

Egypt on Sunday unveiled plans for a vast new urban development west of Cairo where a man-made channel of the River Nile will eventually wind through what was once arid desert. The new city, named Jirian meaning "Flow" in Arabic, is part of Egypt's Nile Delta scheme, a massive agricultural initiative aiming to reclaim about 2.5 million acres west of the original Nile Delta.

The ambitious agricultural project, which started in 2021, seeks to boost production of strategic crops such as wheat and corn while reducing the North African country's food import bill. At a launch event on Sunday, Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli called the Jirian project "an urban and development revolution".

He added that it would create 250,000 jobs and serve as the cornerstone of a wider development zone equivalent in size to four to five governorates.