Egypt lengthening two-way portion of Suez Canal by 10 kilometres | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Egypt lengthening two-way portion of Suez Canal by 10 kilometres | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Egypt is working to improve the Suez Canal by making an additional 10 kilometres accessible to two-way traffic while widening and deepening another 30 kilometres, the chairman of the authority managing the waterway said on Tuesday. Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie, giving the first news conference on the expansion, which began in June, said it would be too expensive to widen the entire length of the waterway linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. However, the two-way portion would be lengthened to 85 kilometres (53 miles) from 75 kilometres, he said. Global shipping traffic was disrupted last year when one of the world's largest container ships got stuck in the southern section of the 190-kilometre canal for about a week. Rabie was speaking on a dredger north of Suez, about two kilometres from where the container ship, the Ever Given, got stuck last March. The expansion, which was scheduled to start in January, was accelerated after the crisis, he said. The work aims mainly to increase traffic safety. Once finished, the transit time to pass through the canal will remain at about 11 hours, Rabie said, according to Reuters. The project's second phase consists of widening the 30-kilometre portion