The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) said it has signed on Thursday an agreement worth EGP 20 billion ($1.27 billion) with the General Authority for Roads and Bridges to develop the canal zone's Ain Sokhna port under a plan to transform it into a leading port hub in the region. According to an official press release, the SCZone said the contract includes the implementation and supervision of construction works for building four new basins, with 12 km long berths and a depth of 18 metres and yards. It also includes the establishment of terminals estimated at 5.6 million square meters and logistics areas of 5.3 km squared, linked with an internal network of railways at a length of 10 km connected to the under-establishment high-speed electric train connecting Sokhna to New Alamein, and a road network of 14 km inside the port to connect the berths and the rest of the port. The agreement was signed by Yehia Zaki, the chairman of the SCZone, and Hossam El-Din Mostafa, chairman of the General Authority for Roads and Bridges, which is responsible for the development and construction at the port. "All the construction and development projects will be completed within two years from now, with the completion of the fast electric train project (Ain Sokhna / Alexandria / New Alamein) as an integrated project," Zaki said. He added that the development of the Sokhna port "will raise its classification and increase its competitiveness within other ports on the Red Sea, which contributes to transforming the Sokhna industrial area into a global platform for petrochemical industries and to be a regional and African logistics hub to serve the global trade movement." The upgrade of the port comes under a strategic plan to turn it into the biggest hub port on the Red Sea and the Middle East, and to serve the global trade movement between the east and the west. It also comes under presidential directives to revamp national ports and boost their efficiency to raise their competitiveness among other ports along the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
