Egypt to deepen, widen Suez Canal after blockage

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved a project to widen and deepen the southern stretch of the Suez Canal, where a giant vessel blocked the strategic maritime artery for nearly a week in March.
The container ship Ever Given is seen at the Suez Canal on March 28, 2021, in Suez, Egypt. Work continues to free the Ever Given, a huge container ship stuck sideways in Egypt's Suez Canal. Dredgers have been working on the port side of the ship in an attempt to remove sand and mud and dislodge the vessel. The Suez Canal is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and the blockage has created a backlog of vessels at either end, raising concerns over the impact the accident will have on global shipping and
The container ship Ever Given is seen stuck in the Suez Canal on March 28, 2021, at Suez, Egypt. - Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images
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Mohammed Magdy
@DMagdy92

CAIRO — At the May 11 inauguration ceremony of a number of development projects at the Suez Canal Authority headquarters in Ismailia, attended by a number of top government officials, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced his approval of a project to expand the Suez Canal.

Canal authority chairman Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, who presented the project to Sisi, said at the ceremony that the project aims to widen and deepen the southernmost 30-kilometer (18-mile) stretch of the waterway by 40 meters (130 feet) eastward. It also seeks to deepen the waterway from 66 feet to 72 feet and extend the second canal lane opened in 2015 by 10 kilometers (6 miles) southward, Rabie said.

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