Jordan’s PM Reveals Plan To Build New City for 1M Residents

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh on Tuesday unveiled a plan to build a new city on state-owned land around 40 kilometers north of Amman. The research and planning stages of the project should be completed in two years, with infrastructure construction beginning in 2025, the state-run Petra news agency reported. Khasawneh said a ministerial committee would supervise the project’s progress, while a government-owned company would manage and implement it. The city will be a public-private partnership, with many of its buildings and facilities constructed on a build-operate-transfer basis. The city’s population is expected to exceed 157,000 in the first phase, and reach 1 million by 2050, Government Communication Minister Faisal Shboul said. Constructing the new city would create 90,000 jobs and benefit the labor and construction sectors, Shboul said. King Abdullah II has asked that an advisory committee of urban planning specialists and experts be set up to ensure that the city becomes a model of sustainability with respect to resources, energy, water, and the environment.