Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi opened on Wednesday the new residential complex Bashayer El-Kheir 2, which will provide housing to 10,000 residents who live in unsafe structures in the Gheit El-Enab area in Alexandria.

The complex is the second phase of an ambitious project to move the residents of Gheit El-Enab -- which lies west of the Karmouz district -- to new flats.

The project was completed in 18 months and comprises almost 1,900 flats in an area of over 50,000 square metres, said Ali Ashmawy, the commander of the northern military zone, during the opening ceremony.

The complex is home to green spaces and more than 300 shops and malls.

A third and fourth phase of the project is being carried out to move more people living in unsafe slums to new flats, bringing the number of flats to 30,000.

The project is financed by donations from NGOs, leading businessmen and the Tahya Misr Fund, which was established by El-Sisi in 2014 to fund social and economic development projects.

During the opening, El-Sisi called on Egyptians to consider family planning to slow population growth, which he says poses a threat to national development.

The president called on low-income families not to compound on their own hardship by having too many kids, as he commented on a documentary of a woman complaining she has no space for her six-member family to sleep.

The project is part of El-Sisi's government efforts to eradicate slums by setting up new housing projects in several governorates.

Around 850,000 to 1 million Egyptians are believed to live in slums deemed unsafe, many of them in the capital Cairo, where the underprivileged have built derelict homes that lack basic amenities.

Alexandria Governor Abdel-Aziz Qunsuah said that the population of the governorate has reached 5.2 million citizens in 2018, and that the past five years have witnessed development projects worth EGP 39 billion in the coastal governorate.

Qunsuah added that the governorate's current net income is EGP 100 million monthly. 

The president also directed Alexandria's officials to start studying the implementation of the elevated metro project to ease traffic in the governorate.

During the visit to the coastal governorate, the president witnessed the demolition of the unsafe buildings in the vicinity of the new residential complex Bashayer El-Kheir, as well as the opening of the Gheit El-Enab sports complex.

He then reviewed the rehousing process of citizens to their new residential units.

President El-Sisi also directed that the new housing units should be equipped with prepaid meters for water, gas and electricity.

"The state will not waive the rights agreed upon with contractors," he said. 

The president also stressed the necessity of adjusting Alexandria's International Park contracts with investors to maximise its revenues. 

"I need a report every 15 days on this matter, either we guarantee the rights of the state with intact contracts or evacuate the park, it seems like investors have not been paying their rental for almost 20 years," El-Sisi said, addressing officials responsible for the park. 

Earlier, Alexandria governor said that the International Park is in debt with EGP 427 million, while its annual revenue stands at only EGP 500,000.