More on the Suez Canal expansion plan: The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) will fullyfund the plan to expand the Suez Canal from its Finance Ministry-approved investment budget to better support two-way traffic, SCA boss Osama Rabie said in a statement yesterday, adding that the expansion will fully be funded in EGP and not put additional pressures on the state budget.

The details: The project will duplicate around 80 kms of the Suez Canal that have not yet been duplicated — 50 kms in the north and 30 kms in the south. The expansion will increase the canal’s capacity by six vessels a day, allow the canal to accommodate vessels of all kinds and sizes, and reduce transit times to nine hours.

What’s next? The authority will carry out environmental, engineering, and dredging studies over 16 months, before presenting the project to the Madbouly government, Rabie added. The feasibility study is also on track to be done within the same timeframe, which is being conducted by engineering consulting companies ACE Moharram Bakhoum and our friends at Dar Al Handasah, Rabie said at the Marlog conference when he first announced the news on Sunday. Preliminary studies for the project have already been presented to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

Work is already underway to expand other stretches of the canal: The government has wrapped the first phase of expanding the southern portion of the canal and is currently working on the second phase, which aims to double the canal across a 10-km segment.

The int’l press also took notice: Reuters | Bloomberg

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