The president's directives came in a meeting with Presidential Adviser for Urban Planning Major General Amir Sayed Ahmed and Head of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority Major General Ahmed El-Azazy.

El-Sisi stressed that these areas should be integrated with the new roads and axes network in ways that provide various services to citizens and restore the lustre of the capital, according to a statement released by Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady.

Egypt has taken strides in developing its roads network over the past years as part of the country's ongoing National Road Project Egypt that kicked off in 2014.

The project aims to develop and extend the country’s 23,500 km road network.

In the last eight years, the government has developed or constructed new roads in the length of more than 7,000 km and has also constructed 900 new bridges, according to recent figures.

Land reclamation in Toshka

During the meeting, El-Sisi instructed increased coordination among relevant state bodies to reclaim more lands and develop agricultural and irrigation systems in Upper Egypt’s Toshka.

The Toshka land reclamation project south of Aswan, which is one of the largest of its kind in the Middle East, seeks to add 1.1 million feddans of cultivated lands to Egypt’s agricultural lands.

The project aims to meet the country’s needs for various strategic crops, especially wheat.

During the meeting today, the president was briefed on the current status of implementation for the different projects and on the timeline set for the Engineering Authority's projects nationwide.

El-Sisi also reviewed the implementation status of a number of establishments in the New Administrative Capital (NAC), especially the State Strategic Command Center Complex and the Bank Area.

El-Azazy also reviewed with the president the status of implementation for the investment projects in Damietta governorate.