The Pharaonic Egypt was the first country to dig a man-made canal across its territories to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea via the branches of the River Nile with a view to activating the world trade. Then, Khedive Ismail revived the dream by approving De Lesseps project on November 17, 1869, launching the digging of the traditional Suez Canal. After 87 years under the French privilege, the canal was nationalized by former President Gamal Abdel Nasser on July26, 1956. In August 2014, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi launched his first national project after two months of his ascent to power to expand the canal to allow the passage of more ships. The project was viewed as a turning point in Egypt's economy. After 12 months of continuing activities of drilling, dredging and cladding, Egypt's new Suez Canal is now ready to receive further world trade vessels, so what are the main facts about this new project? The second waterway is actually a 35-kilometer parallel channel that starts from the 60km Mark in the main canal and meets it again at the 95km Mark, creating an island in the middle. New ports and logistical services are planned to be established on this island. The $ 8-billion project includes building six tunnels under the canal and 37km of widening and deepening of the original as well as other corridors to a depth of 24 meters to allow huge ships to cross in sunken of 66 feet. The depth of the canal is generally 325 feet wide at the surface and 75 feet at the bottom. The new canal allows two-way traffic, reduces transit time to 11 hours from 18, raises capacity and shortens the time it takes to sail the 193km link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, according to the Suez Canal Authority. The authority expects revenue to grow to more than $13.22 billion by 2023, up from $5.3 billion in 2015. The expansion will meet future demand, with traffic expected to double to 97 vessels a day by 2023 compared to 49 vessels a day in 2014, Head of the Suez Canal Authority, Mohab Mameesh said. According to the Suez Canal operator, more than 17,000 container ships traverse the Suez Canal every year, carrying cargoes of more than 318,000 tons. Four million barrels of crude oil are transported along the canal a day. This is about 8 percent of the world's total ocean trade and 5 percent of the global oil output. The Egyptian government hopes this project will raise the competitive capabilities of the canal, giving it superiority over other similar waterways around the world.
