New Mansoura City is one of the cities affiliated with the New Urban Communities Authority, and is located at the intersection of the governorates of Daqahliya, Kafr El-Sheikh and Damietta, spokesman for the presidency Bassam Rady said in a statement on Thursday.

The construction of the city is part of a project to build a group of new smart cities nationwide, and it is considered one of the development arteries on the northern coast of Egypt, according to Rady.

During his speech at the inauguration ceremony, Housing Minister Assem El-Gazzar said New Mansoura City is being built in accordance with the Egypt’s National Strategy for Climate Change, as it encourages digital transformation and preserves energy.

The city is being built in four stages, and the land area of ​​the first phase is 2,063 feddans, representing 40 percent of the total area of the city, which will cover 5,913 feddans, according to the presidential website.

El-Gazzar said that the first stage of the New Mansoura City includes 19,500 units, 90 percent of which are low and medium-income housing units. The city also has four universities and a desalination plant, generating 160,000 cubic meters of water a day, according to the minister.

The construction of the first phase costs EGP 24 billion.

In his speech at the inauguration, El-Sisi said the building of New Mansoura City is part of a comprehensive plan by the state to build 30 fourth-generation cities.

Building new cities is not a luxury, but a necessity for achieving development, the president noted, adding that the state's efforts in construction and development aim to ensure a better future for the next generations.

El-Sisi said that around 5,000 companies are working on the government’s development projects, which employ more than 5 million people.

The fourth-generation cities the state is currently building include the New Administrative Capital, New Alamein, New Mansoura, East Port Said, Nasser City in western Assiut and New Ismailia.

“Fourth generation cities are not a luxury, but are essential to housing a growing population. We need to double Egypt’s built-up area instead of crowding ever more people in the Nile Valley and Delta,” Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said in previous remarks.

El-Sisi said that the continued population increase at the current rate impedes development, stressing that over-population is “an enemy” that will impede the development of the country.

On 27 November, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) reported that Egypt's population grew by more than 250,000 people in the past 56 days,  reaching 104.257 million.

El-Sisi said in March that the government is attempting to alleviate the population’s living conditions despite the rising population, warning that difficulties will persist should the country’s population keep increasing at this pace.

According to the CAPMAS, Egypt’s population is expected to reach 192 million in 2052 should the current growth rate continue.