Al Ahram Al Iktisadi, p.23, (19/2/2006)

The new cities

New cities were meant to move a chunk of the population outside the capital. The problem is that the new cities became satellites of the capital and imposed more burdens on it. The project of establishing new cities is applied in several countries around the world.

The results of the Indian experience in the field of setting up new cities

Upon reviewing the Indian experience in the field of establishing new residential cities, we will see the following results:

India applied a decentralized approach in the implementation of the projects. The role of the central government is confined to establishing the infrastructure; then the state governments take over the establishment, running and development of the new cities.

The Indian government applied an effective approach based on popular participation: according to this approach, the governmental and non-governmental organizations took part in running and developing new cities in a way that prevent the Government’s bad performance in certain areas.

India established industrial complexes. By this new approach, the city administration provides factories for investors either through selling or through renting them.

The industrial cities in India contain 20% of the population. Therefore, they were more successful than new cities set up for administrative reasons that comprised a larger percentage of the population as is the case with Mumbai.

One of the reasons why the new cities established for administrative reasons failed to achieve their goals is the high cost of constructions as they were built on the western lines, therefore, lots of resources were squandered while they might have been used differently in a developing country like India.

India made use of the cooperative societies that shared in the construction of the residential areas, while the cooperatives do not play any role in the new cities in Egypt.