Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouq Hosny will pay the first field visit to the new site of the Grand Egyptian Museum to inspect what was accomplished of building process to complete the century project on time.
The Minister stated that he will start the visit by inspecting the Monuments and antiquities restoration center, warehouses and electric power plant, which are the annexed buildings of the Grand museum and will cost L.E. 300 Million in construction. Accordingly, an important part of the first and second stages of the project would be fulfilled prior to entering the third stage for establishing the main building that is due for official inauguration in “2011”.Hosny added that he issued a decision forming a committee for discussing a set of designs laid down by a team of European engineers for tendering the process of establishing the main building of the museum for selecting the suitable for commencing implementation. He pointed out that 75% of works of 2nd stage were completed that include the electric power station, restoration center, and extinguishing unit that are all shall be fully completed within six months from now.
On his part the supervisor of the project Farouq Abdul Salam explained that tender of the 3rd and last stage of the project which include the main building and museum display halls in addition to the coordination of the general site will take place early next year. Consultation studies are currently underway by the international designing team of the project in preparation for the international tender for specialized companies.
He pointed out that two tenders for management companies were at hand for selecting two companies first to manage the project as regards of technical and engineering aspects during the implementation while the other would provide consultations and technical support for project works, working for developing human and financial resources with documentation of the archeological groups that to be displayed in the museum.
Abdul Salam said that selection and preparation of technical cadres that will manage the museum after inauguration is currently underway, with determination of needs from technical labour, in accordance to the international standards and studies prepared about the museum with sending the nominated persons to training courses abroad around the museum work according to latest world systems.
Concerning finance of the project the Supervisor General of the project Emad Maklad said that the Japanese loan of 300 million dollars already arrived, that is dedicated for finance of the 3rd stage of the project.
The Chairman of the Executive Agency of the project Mohamed Ghoneim said that 55000 pieces of antiquities were selected from 100000 to be displayed in the museum. At the present time rest of pieces are under selection with performance of monumental and scientific description and documentation of these pieces, which all shall be introduced to the restoration center of the museum until the project work would be completed.
Ghoneim explained that contract was concluded with a specialized laboratory in Britain for conducting analysis and examinations necessary for stones that will be selected for erecting the main façade of the museum with a length of 600 meters and elevation of 45 meters.
