Another 1 mn feddans of desert land near Egypt’s northwestern coastline are slated for reclamation as part of a new national mega-project, according to an Ittihadiya statement. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi instructed his government yesterday to “immediately” move ahead with implementing the project, which is designed to create a new area of agricultural production dubbed the “New Delta,” according to the statement. The area will include industrial complexes that are built around agricultural production, the statement says, without providing further details.

The project should be complete within two years, Agriculture Minister El Sayed El Quseir told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa. The project has already undergone feasibility studies from the Agriculture Ministry, Cairo University, and Alexandria University (watch, runtime: 26:56).

This is not the same as the 1.5 mn feddan project, which El Sisi announced back in 2015 as one of several national mega projects. That project involves tendering a vast expanse of land in the Western Desert to qualified investors and aims to increase the size of Egypt’s arable land by 20%.