Algeria is building five new towns to improve living conditions for its population and encourage the development of certain parts of its territory, each project integrating different infrastructures deemed essential for the future.
Among the major projects carried out by Algeria, those of the new towns are emblematic of the approach of its government. These projects transform the urban space.
Boughezoul: a futuristic urban hub
In the Hauts Plateaux region, 170 km south of Algiers, we discover, for example, the works of the new town of Boughezoul which plans to accommodate some 400,000 inhabitants. The project consists of a futuristic urban center of 20,000 hectares divided between housing, business districts, and agricultural areas, in a strategic region at the crossroads of the north-south and east-west axes.
“We created a modern city in order to attract the population and create a balance between the coast, the Hauts Plateaux, and the south,” explains Mourad Ghouati, general manager of the Public Establishment of the New Town of Boughezoul. “These are new pilot cities, we hope to extend this experience later to other cities,” he remarks.
The future city houses the center of the Algerian Space Agency, a railway station, and soon, an international airport.
Servicing is complete: 28 km of galleries for electrical networks, fiber optics, drinking water, and irrigation of green spaces. “The technical gallery is sustainable work because the new town of Boughezoul has a character of sustainability,” says Abdelghani Zerrouki, technical director at the Public Establishment of the New Town of Boughezoul. “So if we have a change of pipe or electrical cable, we can do it very easily, quickly, efficiently, and quietly,” he says.
Sidi Abdallah, “a city with sustainable development indicators”
Boughezoul is one of the five new towns in Algeria. Sidi Abdallah, in Greater Algiers, is another. There are leisure areas, health centers, pharmaceutical industries, and even a university center.
“Our project is to create an attractive, smart, resilient, and connected city, a city with sustainable development indicators, and we want to ensure comfort for our inhabitants,” explains Abdelhak Sedaoui, director general of the Development Committee. of the New Town of Sidi Abdallah.
A priority for Algeria has been to eradicate precarious housing. In the Saharan regions, new housing estates are delivered as part of the inter-regional balance.
To relieve congestion in large cities, low-cost housing and interest-free loans are offered by the State in satellite neighborhoods.
Meet the expectations of young people and the needs of international sporting events
Another of his priorities was to build stadiums. We visit Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie, the most successful club in the country, in Tizi Ouzou which has 50,000 seats. The works are inspected in person by the Minister of Housing, Urban Planning, and the City Mohamed Tarek Belaribi.
“The realization of all these stadiums is through the enthusiasm of the entire population who are interested in sport and competition,” said the Minister. “This youthful enthusiasm was supported by the public authorities by carrying out all these works, starting with the Oran sports complex where we organized the Mediterranean Games which went wonderfully; we are in the process of completing two other stadiums in the capital Algiers: one in Baraki, 40,000 places, and another in Douera in order to organize competitions on an African scale, “he lists.
But the priority of the Algerian government was also to respond to a housing crisis, recalls Mohamed Tarek Belaribi.
“Since 2020 until now, we have distributed 800,000 housing units,” specifies the Minister of Housing. “This allowed us to reach an occupancy rate of approximately 4 citizens per dwelling and we are out of 3 million citizens who have been affected by this distribution of dwellings,” he continues. “I would say that we are no longer in the perspective of managing the crisis, we are in the process of responding to a request and that is why we have set out to build these new cities in Algeria, according to the instructions from His Excellency the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune,” he said.
“The new Algeria is now!”
And this is how he describes the Algerian cities of tomorrow. ” It is in this perspective that we are in the process of creating new satellite cities, new, technological cities, with different centers dedicated to health or leisure,” he says. “The new Algeria is being built, we are builders in all areas that relate to architecture, peace, humanity… Whoever wants to predict our future has only to see what ‘we are in the process of realizing at the moment: The new Algeria is now [note: the new Algeria is now], “he underlines.
Finally, like a symbol of contemporary Algeria, the recently inaugurated Great Mosque of Algiers, whose tallest minaret in the world culminates at 265 meters, offers an unobstructed view of the country’s progress.
