OVERVIEW: Artist's impression of Eko Atlantic City

Egypt's Cairo and Nigeria's Lagos, apart from being two of Africa's most populous cities, have three other things in common: the crazy traffic, overcrowded streets and hundreds of high-rise buildings. But while Cairo's outskirts have evolved into a classy, modern and spacious "New Cairo," Lagos' Eko Atlantic City is on its way to becoming the continent's top megacity.

Eko Atlantic will offer Nigeria's bourgeoisie a safe haven from the noise and pollution of Lagos. The megacity project has been in the works since its high-profile launch two years ago (April 2008), and since then, it has been the talk of not only the continent, but also the whole world.

Reclaimed land

For the last century, the huge waves in the Atlantic Ocean have been pounding the shores of Lagos causing coastal erosion. This has been eating away at least 10 meters of shoreline every year.

With the Lagos population of 18 million people likely to multiply to 25 million in the next decade, and the pressure on land being inevitable, reclamation was the only answer.

Using Chinese vessels, the contractors at the site have been rainbowing - spraying large quantities of sand on to water to create new areas of dry land - up to 82,000 tons of sand everyday to create the 9 million square meters of land.

A retaining wall has been constructed in the Atlantic Ocean to allow the engineers to do the dredging without having the sand swept back by the ocean's giant waves. The rainbowing is done between the land and the wall.

"We're not doing anything extraordinary. All we're doing is reclaiming lost land from the ocean and then protect the entire city," Prince Adesegun Oniru, the commissioner for waterfront infrastructure, told Nigeria's Silverbird Television.

When all the reclamation is done, it will measure 6 km long and 1.5 km wide.

The megacity, according to official statistics, will house 250,000 people, while accommodating 150,000 commuters. But with a total national shoreline of 186 km, this may just be a taste of Nigeria's bid to reclaim its past glory as Africa's economic powerhouse.

"We set ourselves the objective to become the model megacity for Africa, a city where you can live, work and play," Babatunde Raji Fashola, Governor of Lagos State, told an international news channel.