Container ship Edith Maersk crosses the Suez Canal at East Port Said Port, 120 km (75 miles) northeast of Cairo (Photo: Reuters)
Head of Egypt's Suez Canal Authority said Wednesday that the new waterway to be dug alongside the Suez Canal will increase its revenues by 259 percent.
Mohab Memish said the mega project will also provide touristic resorts and bunkering stations on the eastern side of the canal to provide more job opportunities.
"This project will place Egypt in the forefront of international trade within a few years," Memish told the state television morning show Sabah El-Kheir Ya Masr.
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi had announced Tuesday the inauguration of the 72 km-waterway, with a total cost of $4 billion.
El-Sisi ambitiously announced that digging for a parallel canal will be finished by mid-2015 – far sooner than the three years previously forecasted for the project.
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 – Suez, Ismailia and Port Said.
Memish said the winning consortium of companies to handle the project with the armed forces, will be announced next week.
He added that the project was a ‘necessity’ after the increasing growth of international trade up to 14.4 percent as of 2013.
Short link: