The Egypt Ministry of Culture has appointed Hill/Ehaf, a JV between Hill International and Ehaf Consulting Engineers, to provide project management services for the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Under the five-year contract, Hill-Ehaf will manage the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which will be the largest and most important Pharaonic museum in the world.

The upcoming museum, which will be the largest in Egypt and one of the leading centers of scientific, historical and archaeological study on the globe, is expected to attract over 5 million visitors per year.

The museum project includes a total built up area of 120,000 sq m in order to cover 3,500 years of ancient Egyptian history and will house more than 100,000 artifacts, the Ministry of Culture said in a statement.

The museum’s 21st century galleries will be located in an iconic and distinctive building located where Cairo meets the desert, abutting the Giza Pyramids world heritage site, the ministry said.

The total estimated project cost is $550 million, of which $300 million will be financed through a Japanese loan, while the remaining will be funded by the Supreme Council of Antiquities and other donations and international funds, it added.

“With the selection of a project manager, we have achieved yet another milestone in the development of the Grand Egyptian Museum,” said Farouk Hosny, Egyptian Minister of Culture.

“In Hill/Ehaf, we have the expertise of a world-class project management team to ensure that this project will be completed successfully,” he added.

The museum is being designed by Heneghan Peng Architects – Ove Arup – Buro Hupbold and others.

'The new museum is being designed with the latest technology systems including Virtual Reality. At the same time, it will be a global centre of museums communications in order to be able to have direct contact with other local and international museums.'

“This is an iconic, once-in-a-lifetime project,' said Raouf S. Ghali, president of Hill’s Project Management Group (International). 'Hill and EHAF are proud to have been selected to manage the construction of this world-class project,” Ghali remarked.

“We are glad to participate in managing this historical project, and we shall use outstanding project management systems that are to the level of the humanitarian value that this project presents,“ said Mohamed Fahmy, the vice president of Ehaf.

The museum will also boast of a children museum, conference centre, training centre, and workshops similar to the old Pharaonic places.-TradeArabia News Service