CAIRO: Building six road tunnels under the Suez Canal will start soon, Mohab Mamish, the head of the Suez Canal Authority, announced Thursday.
The project is the “second complementary phase” of the new Suez Canal project, Youm7 quoted Mamish. The to-be-built tunnels will cost 29 billion EGP ($3 billion,) facilitating the transport of goods and individuals.
Half the number of the tunnels will be built in Ismailia; two of them will be road tunnels and one will be a railway tunnel. The other three road tunnels will be built in Port Said. Another railway tunnel of seven kilometer length and an inner diameter 12 meters allowing trains to pass in two directions will be built at a depth of 48 meters from the water’s surface.
A new 72-kilometer waterway in the Suez Canal started operating Friday, after it was opened by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi Thursday in a ceremony attended by world leaders. The new dug extension to the main Suez Canal will allow ships to move in two directions at the same time, lessening transit time.
The waterway project, known in the local media as the new Suez Canal, was given one year completion after it was launched August 2014. The short duration was considered a “challenge” facing the country, which aims through the project to raise the revenues of the Suez Canal to $13.5 billion by 2023.
World presidents and leaders flocked to Ismailia to celebrate the project opening; Saudi Arabia crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Jordanian Monarch Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and French President Francois Hollande have shared the other world leaders on the platform.