Hurghada District Recovers 2,800 Square Metres of State Land, and Warns It Is Watching Over the Holidays

South Hurghada district has cleared encroachments from two state-owned plots in the Herafeyeen (craftsmen's) area totalling 2,800 square metres, according to Osoul Misr.

The encroachments took the form of walls of rubble stone and white brick raised on the two plots:

• first plot: 1,300 square metres
• second plot: 1,500 square metres

The work was carried out on the instructions of Maj. Gen. Ahmed Gabr, head of South Hurghada district, who sent his deputy and the planning and encroachments section of the engineering department to the site after the walls were spotted during routine field monitoring inside the district. Both plots were recovered and legal steps are being taken against those responsible, the outlet reports.

The action falls under directives from Red Sea Governor Dr Walid El-Barqi on responding immediately to encroachment on state property and to building violations, Osoul Misr says.

Gabr said there would be no leniency towards any attempt to encroach on state property, commit building violations or obstruct streets within the district, and that field monitoring continues around the clock. He singled out official holidays, saying monitoring is being intensified over them so that unlicensed building work is caught as it starts.

The report does not name the people behind the walls, say how long they had stood, or set out what penalties the legal steps carry.

For residents, the holiday point is the operative one: building work begun over a long weekend on the assumption that nobody is looking is exactly what the district says it is now watching for.