Overview

The project combines an administrative city, University of Aleppo faculties and a residential neighbourhood at Jabal Sheikh Aqil in Al-Bab, in the eastern Aleppo countryside. According to the Ministry of Endowments, the project stands on waqf (endowment) land of 200 dunams and is carried out in partnership between the ministry and the Al-Bab City Council. Samer Bayraqdar, the deputy minister of endowments for waqf affairs, told SANA that the aim is to turn the site into a scientific and development centre serving the area. The foundation stone was laid on 21 July 2026, and construction of the administrative city began on 16 September 2026 (see the updates below).

Administrative city

• Area: 66,000 square metres, according to the Al-Bab area official Hussein al-Shehabi, speaking to SANA.
• Purpose: to gather the area's government departments and institutions in a single administrative centre. Al Jazeera, citing a Syria Now correspondent, reported that it lies at the western entrance of Al-Bab and comprises 15 government institutions.
• According to Al-Ikhbariah, it is built under the supervision of the Al-Bab City Council: the municipality handles the infrastructure, and the buildings are carried out under the “Aleppo Sitt al-Kul” campaign.

University faculties

• On 29 June 2026 the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced that the Higher Education Council had approved three new University of Aleppo faculties based in Al-Bab: the Second Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, the Second Faculty of Sciences (Mathematics Department) and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, SANA reported.
• The university campus covers 46,000 square metres. The plan provides for nine faculties, three of which were approved for the first phase: Veterinary Medicine, Agricultural Engineering and Sciences, according to al-Shehabi.
• Aleppo Governorate described the faculties as the first government university institution in the area, Al Jazeera reported. According to Al-Ikhbariah, the university neighbourhood is carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Endowments and the University of Aleppo.

Residential neighbourhood and other components

• Residential compounds on 120,000 square metres providing about 1,800 apartments, according to al-Shehabi.
• The Syria Now correspondent, cited by Al Jazeera, said that besides lecture halls and classrooms the faculties would have a residential neighbourhood with a school, a mosque, a service and administrative centre and residential towers.
• Bayraqdar told SANA that, alongside the government university affiliated with the University of Aleppo, the project includes an Islamic university, a mosque, a sharia secondary school, parks, residential areas and administrative buildings.

Cost and timeline

Ammar Nassar, the media official of the Al-Bab area, told Al-Ikhbariah in July 2026 that the duration and total cost of the two projects would be announced with the executive programmes and contracts of each phase.

Update, 21 July 2026: foundation stone laid

The Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Minister of Endowments, the Governor of Aleppo and the Al-Bab area official laid the foundation stone for the administrative city and for the Al-Bab faculties of the University of Aleppo on 21 July 2026, SANA reported. On the same occasion, according to Syria TV, the director of Aleppo Endowments and the head of the Al-Bab City Council signed a protocol accrediting the Al-Bab faculties within the University of Aleppo.

Speaking to Syria Now in July 2026, as reported by Al Jazeera, al-Shehabi said construction of the administrative city would start within the coming week, in two stages: seven buildings within one year, then the remaining buildings in a further year. He said the faculties would first go through legal procedures before their construction began, and expected the whole project to be completed within three years of the start of works. These were the timelines announced in July 2026; construction of the administrative city began on 16 September 2026 (see the next update).

Update, 16 September 2026: construction of the administrative city begins

Construction of the administrative city began on 16 September 2026 on an area of 66,000 square metres, under the supervision of Aleppo Governorate, the Al-Bab area administration and the city council, SANA reported. Project supervisor Youssef Karz said the first phase includes government buildings, among them the immigration and passports department, the civil registry, the Palace of Justice (courthouse), the city council and the water and electricity companies, and that the project also has garages, service blocks and a mosque.

Al-Shehabi said actual work started once the structural and engineering plans were completed and the infrastructure and logistics were in place. He hoped the first phase would be finished soon, without setting a completion date. City council head Ali Rajab said that after the foundation stone was laid, the site was divided into administrative blocks according to each institution's operating space and expected number of visitors, and that the first phase covers the structural frames of all the administrative centres in the project.