President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has underlined the importance of national housing projects and plans to provide alternative housing for residents of shanty towns.

On that score, Sisi gave directives to evacuate slum areas as part of steps taken to confront this problem.

The president's remarks were made during his meeting Tuesday with Minister of Housing Mostafa Madboli along with Head of the Egyptian Armed Forces Engineering Authority Maj Gen Kamel el Wazeer.

Sisi also highlighted the state's role in providing suitable housing for citizens, stressing Egypt's keenness on extending all utilities to them.

In statements, presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said the meeting took up Egypt's ongoing efforts to implement national housing projects.

The first phase of those projects, Youssed added, includes the establishment of 256,000 units - about 180,000 of which have already been built while the rest will be completed by the end 2016.

Meanwhile, 275,000 units of the second phase will be ready by mid-2017, bringing the total number of units in both phases to 531,000, he indicated.

President Sisi, the spokesman noted, has given directives to increase the number of those units to reach 600,000 in order to meet the people's needs.

Source: MENA