The development of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula is expected to be completed by 2022 at a cost of around EGP 275 bn, according to a presidential aide for national and strategic projects and former prime minister Ibrahim Mehleb.

The estimated cost is almost three times that announced by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in December.

The project will be financed by both the state and through loans from regional and international finance institutions.

“The Sinai development project is a project for national security,” Mehleb said, without specifying the means of finance.

The project plan involves a comprehensive network of roads, hospitals and sewage networks, four water desalination plants, as well as residential and industrial developments.

While the coastal South Sinai is full of luxurious tourist resorts on the Red Sea, North Sinai lacks basic infrastructure and job opportunities, coupled with an insurgency by Islamist militants for years.