CAIRO: River transport between the Aswan port in Egypt and al-Shahid Zubair port in Sudan will be developed to increase trade and investment volume between the two African nations, MENA reported Thursday.
The docks, trading, loading and unloading operations at Shahid Zubair port in Sudan’s northern city of Wadi Halfa will be advanced per an agreement of the Nile Valley Authority for River Navigation (NVARN,) head of NVARN Mostafa Amer told MENA after meetings between Egyptian and Sudanese officials in Khartoum.
After the inauguration of Qustul-Ashkit land port on the Egyptian-Sudanese border, the revenues of NVARN decreased by 80 percent, Amer said, adding that accordingly the price of travelling and transportation via NVARN has been reduced to be lower than land and air transportation.
The river transport’s target is to transfer 6 million tons of goods a year, about 10 percent of Egyptians’ good transported internally and externally, according to Amer.
Amer emphasized Cairo and Khartoum’s determination to embark on a navigable route from Alexandria to Cape Town, noting that the depth of Lake Nasser in Egypt and the designated router in the Nile River is adequate for such a major project.