CAIRO: Reports yesterday of the renewed interest in the multi-billion dollar plan to build a causeway between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are today being denied by the Saudi Ministry of Transportation. Al-Watan quoted an official source at the ministry as saying that the two countries had renewed an agreement to construct a 50-km-long causeway on the Red Sea to be named “King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Causeway.” However, now the Saudi Ministry of Transportation has issued a statement, declaring “There is no any such agreement to the effect between the ministry and any other party concerning the project.” It said also declared the project was never discussed in any of the meetings involving the ministry with the Egyptian side. “No official from the ministry had made any statement regarding this issue,” the ministry declaratively said. Egypt was aflutter in what they thought a renewed interest in the project. The Chairman of foreign trade department at the Egyptian Ministry of Commerce Hussain Omran said such a causeway would increase trade between the two countries by more than 300% from the present $4.2 billion annually to more than $13 billion in two years. Egypt was expecting a huge increase in Saudi tourists, as the causeway would have made crossing by car, over land, doable in under 30 minutes. The causeway was to extend from Tabuk, in the northern borders of the Kingdom, to Egyptian ports, and has been on the drawing board since 1998. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/djyVB Tags: Causeway, Denied, Egypt, Saudi Section: Egypt, Latest News, Saudi Arabia
