The City of Beirut Extends to the Khalde Area

The technical committee formed under the chairmanship of the Minister of Public Works has completed the plans for realizing the New Beirut project. This project will be carried out by linking Martyrs' Square, by a street twenty meters wide, to the Beirut pine forest, where gardens and promenades, swimming pools, a zoological garden, and public squares are to be laid out. From the forest the corniche will extend, forty meters wide, until it reaches Khalde, where a great airport will be built. As for New Beirut, it will rise between the forest and the Khalde airport. The necessary plans for this city have been drawn up in the most modern style, fulfilling all the requirements demanded of a modern city, so that it will be the most beautiful city in the East. His Excellency the Minister of Public Works says: "The appropriations set aside for this project in the current year amount to one million eight hundred thousand liras, which will be spent on opening roads, on planning works, and on laying out the gardens and promenades, while companies or individuals will undertake the building of houses and residences in accordance with the plans drawn up by the Public Works Department." And he says that the delay in beginning the work, after the Chamber of Deputies ratified the extraordinary budget — the New Beirut project among its items — is due to the study of the airport question, "because we are awaiting the arrival of the expert, to decide together with our competent bodies whether or not the Khalde area is suitable for the construction of a modern airport."