U.S. Copts Association

By  Ashraf el-Gaar   

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif will receive tomorrow a detailed report from Minister of Housing Engr. Ahmed el-Maghrabi on the executive plan for restoring, renovating and upgrading the Shura Council building, as well as constructing an attached building on an area of 1200 meters in the Council’s grounds.

Sources said that the plan, which President Mubarak assigned Housing Minister to finalize urgently, included processes of restoration, substitution and upgrading in 3 phases.  The first phase– restoring the main conference hall, 25% of which was damaged– will start immediately, and end in a period no later than next November.

The first parliamentary session for Shura Council will be held in the restored hall, which is scheduled to be inaugurated by President Mubarak prior to his address before the joint session of the People’s Assembly and Shura Council in the next parliamentary round.

Dr. Ali Abdel Rahman, chief of the technical consulting committee of Shura Council, said that it is fortunate that the main hall of Shura Council is separate from the burned building.  Damages are not more than 25%, most of which resulted from using large quantities of water for fighting the fire.

The second phase of substitution and renovation will take 5 months, and includes processes of restoration of the first and second floors, in which damages range between 30 and 70%. The old walls have not been affected.  The third floor will be completely rebuilt.

The third phase will be executed over a period of 18 months, and includes constructing an annex to Shura Council on an area of 1200 meters to accommodate clerks and secretaries of both councils.  The whole building will be secured against fire.

The sources said that the el-Maghrabi plan, which will be reviewed by Nazif in a ministerial meeting tomorrow, includes securing the historical site against fire, and changing and upgrading the nets of radio, TV and live transmission inside the building. The sources noted that initial estimates put the total cost of the three phases at LE 75 million. The Arab Contractors Co. will handle all the stages of reconstruction.

Meanwhile, it has been decided to honor the civil defense constable, Fouad Nouri, who died under the rubbles during firefighting operations. He was the first to report the fire outbreak in the building.

Al-Masry Al-Youm has learnt that Safwat el-Sherief will hold a party in honor of the fireman’s family, and that it will receive LE 50,000. Dr. Fathi Surour, Speaker of the People’s Assembly, has decided that they will receive another LE 50,000, and an additional LE 25,000 will be given to them by Cairo governor Dr. Abdel Azeem Wazir. Each person injured by the fire will receive  LE 5,000.

The staff of the People’s Assembly will return to work after tomorrow.  1200 personnel of the People’s Assembly and 400 personnel of the Shura Council will be redistributed to alternative places in the nearby ministries of Transport, and Social Insurance, as their offices were affected by the fire.  

In a related context, the fire of Shura Council led to a state of confusion in the government’s agenda during the current week.  Dr. Ahmed Nazif canceled his commitments, which included spending his vacation and holding meetings in the cabinet office in Alexandria.

Nazif is scheduled to hold a meeting tomorrow with Housing Minister Ahmed el-Maghrabi  and Dr. Ali Abdel Rahman, chief of the technical committee for restoring the Shura Council building.

He will discuss and approve the plan for restoring and rebuilding the burned building.  He will also hold a meeting to secure the and historical site against fire.