On the second day of his visit to Luxor, President Hosni Mubarak on Monday inaugurated the new Qurna town located on the west bank of Luxor and built by the State for inhabitants of the old Qurna village.

The new Qurna town is the place to which inhabitants of the old village were moved to protect the archaeological sites they were living in.

The inauguration of the new town and the relocation of the Qurna villagers there ends a 50-year-old battle to evict squatters from one of Egypt's most renowned archaeological site where the nearly 10,000 inhabitants of the old village used to live in mud-brick houses erected over ancient Egyptian tombs on the Theban hills.

The President was accompanied while touring the new town by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Defence Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Housing Minister Ahmed al-Maghrabi and Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana, besides Samir Farag, the Chief of Luxor City Higher Council.

The relocation of three thousand five hundred families to the new town has been regarded as one of the most important resettlement operations to be made in Luxor since the rescue of Abu Simbel in Nubia some 40 years ago.

The event falls within the context of a field trip started by President Mubarak to Luxor yesterday to open a number of new tourist, development and service projects that aim at upgrading living conditions, encouraging investment activities and generating more job opportunities.

The trip is just one of many that are being made by the President to Upper Egypt to see personally progress in the implementation of government plans to overhaul the entire Upper Egypt area.

The President was welcomed at the new town by cheering crowds grateful for being offered the chance to lead a new life at a new place that addresses all their needs.

The President listened Farag while expounding to him the steps that led to the erection of the new town which occupies an area of 286 feddans and whose construction cost the State coffers LE 170 million.

The new Qurna town was built by the Armed Forces in a way that preserves the special way of life of its people and fits with the environmental, historical and social characteristics of the surrounding area.
The town is complete with all its services and utilities; it contains 750 housing units in addition to 2,350 plots of land ready for construction.

The government has provided financing for the town which also boasts a large shopping mall, two schools, a medical clinic, a police station, a centre for youths, a large park designated to be used as a play ground for children, a communications and post centre, in addition to other basic services.

So far 400 families have already been moved to the town. The process to reallocate them started last month.

They were given ownership contracts for free and their contracts allow them to add extensions to their new property to meet future needs.

Evacuating the old Qurna village and relocating its inhabitants to the new town will give tourists and archaeologists access to nearly 1,000 Pharaonic tombs that lie beneath their old homes.

Besides; President Hosni Mubarak inaugurated on Monday morning in the Valley of the Kings and Queens on the west bank of Luxor the Visitor Center, which is a museum and exhibition for tombs of Pharaonic dynasties.

The Visitor Center includes large screens airing documentaries on all monuments and tombs in the West Valley to have tourists acquainted with such precious sites without the need to get into them.

Similar visitor centers will be established in other archaeological sites to give tourists a chance to see the various antiquities and tombs through films instead of entering the sites to protect them from any damage in the long run.

Coming out of the Centre, President Mubarak was faced with tourist gathering to take pictures and shake hands with.

They expressed their great admiration of the Egyptian civilization, hospitality and beautiful weather. They said they will certainly come back again.

President Mubarak yesterday inaugurated new drinking water station in Arment city, Qena, within the framework of following up the implementation of his electoral platform which aims at upgrading services extended to the masses, developing utilities and infrastructures.

The President listened to an explanation from Qena governor Magdy Ayyoub on the comprehensive development plan in the governorate including the establishment of drinking water and sanitary drainage projects in the remote and underprivileged areas.

He said the costs of the water station amounted to LE 800 million.

The governor said the capacity of the station is currently estimaled at 34,000 cubic meters and is planned to be increased to 68,000 cubic meters by the end of this year.