CAIRO, Oct 11 (Aswat Masriya) - President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has set a two-year deadline to complete the first phase of Egypt's new administrative capital project, starting January 2016.

Sisi met Sunday with Former Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouli, Projects Adviser to Minister of Defense Amir Ahmed Al-Sayed, head of military engineering authority General Emad al-Alfy and chief-of-staff of the military engineering authority Major General Kamel Al-Wazeer.

Egypt contracted a Chinese company to start implementing the first phase, said Madbouli. 

Egypt signed the deal with China State Construction Engineering Corporation, also known as China Construction, in September. The company is tasked with "studying the building and financing" of the administrative part of the new capital.

The project was announced last March during the Egyptian Economic Development Conference (EEDC) held in Sharm al-Sheikh and is estimated to cost $45 billion.

The new capital will be constructed over 490 kilometres squared of land and is slated to include 1.1 million housing units to serve 5 million citizens, Madbouli said.

The capital will also include 10,000 roads and a new airport and will take between five to seven years to complete, he added. 

Egypt had so far only highlighted the involvement of the UAE's Capital City Partners (CCP), where an initial agreement was signed for the mega-project at the EEDC, said Reuters. 

Media reports circulated that Emirati company Emaar was implementing the project, but the company later denied the reports.