A tender for the construction of a navigation channel parallel to Egypt's Suez Canal will be offered before the end of this year, according to Port Said Port Authority President Ibrahim Seddiq. The new channel will serve vessels entering the port of East Port Said, he said. “We estimate LE400 million in initial costs for the channel, which will be 9 km long, 250 meters wide and 50 meters deep,” Seddiq added, noting that the channel would be capable of accommodating vessels of more than 400 meters in length. A transport ministry official said the channel was part of a concession signed in 2000 between the Suez Canal Container Company (SCCC) and the Egyptian government. That agreement, he pointed out, stipulated that the government build the parallel channel in 2012. In 2009, total container traffic through East Port Said amounted to 2.7 million containers, a figure that is expected to rise to 4.5 million containers by 2012. In related news, sources at the SCCC, which operates the East Port Said maritime port, said that President Hosni Mubarak would inaugurate the second phase of the East Port Said container terminal next month. The second phase will see the increase of the port's overall container capacity by 450 meters. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
