Egypt has launched a plan to improve the Suez Canal by making an additional 10km accessible to two-way traffic, while widening and deepening another 30km, the head of the water authority said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the first press conference on the expansion, which began in June, Osama Rabie, president of the Suez Canal Authority, said it would be very expensive to widen the entire length of the waterway connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
However, the two-way section will be extended to 85km from 75km, he said.
Global shipping ceased last year when one of the largest container vessels in the world stuck in the southern part of the 190-kilometer canal for about a week.
The work is mainly aimed at increasing security. Once completed, the transit time for a ship to cross the canal will remain approximately 11 hours, Rabie said.
The second phase of the project consists of the widening of the 30 km long section that extends south to the mouth of the canal with an excavation of 40 meters on its eastern side. This section, where the Ever Given stuck, will also deepen by six feet.
“This is a difficult part of the canal,” he said, adding that “deepening and widening will smooth the canal’s turns at this point” and reduce the effects of southerly winds.
The project will cost 3 billion Egyptian pounds ($ 191 million) and will be completed and inaugurated by the end of June 2023, he said.
Rabie told CNBC Arabia separately on Tuesday that the authority was considering listing shares of some of its listed companies in Egypt and that it expected to sell 20% of the shares in two or three, namely Canal Rope and Canal Harbor. Great Projects.
Source: Capital
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