Machineries are driven during an upgrading project on the Suez Canal (Photo: Reuters)
The board for Al-Azhar's "worker's solidarity fund" has decided Monday to invest LE250,000 (about $35,000) to the Suez Canal's extension program, Al-Ahram’s Arabic website reported.
Earlier this month, Egypt started digging a 72 kilometre-long waterway parallel to the Suez Canal, with the aim of increasing the capacity of the vital international shipping route.
Al-Azhar's decision comes in the wake of its Grand Imam's urges to Egyptians to donate to the new project.
The projected cost of the project is LE28 billion ($4 billion). A similar sum is needed for the digging of six tunnels that will link the east and west banks of the canal which brings the total to a sum of LE60 billion ($8.5 billion).
The government will secure the remaining funding through a consolidated loan from Egyptian banks. It was decided to limit the finance of the digging of the new canal and the tunnels to Egyptians because of the sensitivity of the canal and its history.
The new canal is part of the Suez Canal Development mega project, which includes the development of several seaports in the three governorates bordering the canal to transform the waterway into a hub of international investment and free trade zones.
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