File Photo: Cargo ships passing through the Suez Canal. Photo courtesy of SCA.
Following the announcement Sunday of the Suez Canal doubling project, Rabie revealed more details about the project in a statement.
According to the chairman, the project is still undergoing feasibility studies, environmental studies, engineering and civil studies, soil research, dredging, and other studies.
The SCA is conducting these studies in cooperation with major international consulting firms and expects them to be complete in approximately 16 months.
He did not name the firms in question.
Afterward, the project will be presented to the government, he explained.
Funding will be provided by the SCA’s investment budget and will not impose any additional burden on the country's general budget, he asserted.
The chairman explained that the project aims to double the canal in both directions, increasing its capacity to accommodate all types and sizes of ships.
Rabie affirmed that the SCA is moving forward with its ambitious strategy to improve the canal by developing its infrastructure and is considering new projects that will be funded through the authority’s investment budget.
The chairman pointed to, as an example, the completion of the first phase of the Southern Sector Development Project, which widened the canal by 40 metres between kilometres 132 and 162.
Work is still underway to complete the second phase of the project between kilometers 122 and 132, where approximately 46.5 million cubic meters of sand have already been removed.
This project aims to increase the capacity of the canal by an average of six ships and increase the navigational safety factor in that sector by 28 percent.
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