Suez Canal Area Development Project
| Suez Canal Area Development Project | |
|---|---|
| Specifications | |
| Status | Under construction |
| Navigation authority | Suez Canal Corridor Development Project Authority |
| History | |
| Original owner | Egyptian Government |
| Principal engineer | Dar Al-Handasah |
| Construction began | 5 August 2014 |
The Suez Canal Corridor Area Project (Arabic: مشروع تطوير محور قناة السويس) is a mega project in Egypt that was launched on 5 August 2014 by president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The project's aim is to increase the role of the Suez Canal region in international trading and to develop the three canal cities: Suez, Ismaïlia, and Port Said.
The project involves building a new city (new Ismallyah city, an industrial zone, fish farms, completing the technology valley, building 7 new tunnels between Sinai and Ismaïlia and Port Said, improving 5 existing ports, and digging a new canal parallel to the Suez Canal. The new canal will increase the canal capacity by allowing ships to sail into both directions at the same time for a greater proportion of the canal. The project will transfer the canal cities into an important trading center globally. It will also build new centers on the Suez Canal for logistic and ship services.
el-Sisi announced that the new Suez Canal project will operate after a year (instead of three years). The project's authority said that the revenues of the canal will increase from 5 billion dollars to 12.5 billion dollars yearly. The new Suez Canal and the 7 tunnels are under construction simultaneously. Construction of the rest of the projects (which include building the city, industrial zone, technology valley, and fish farms) will begin in February 2015.
The project is also known as "The Great Egyptian Dream" because it will help the economy of Egypt to re-heal after many years of unrest and corruption.
The Egyptian Armed Forces participate in the project by helping in designing and digging the canal and the tunnels. It also protects the project's location from terrorists in Sinai.
History
The Suez Canal Corridor Developing Project dates back to 1970s when Hassaballah El Kafrawy (former Minister of Housing) proposed the project to President Anwar al Sadat, but due to problems, the project didn't start. He proposed the project again to Hosni Mubarak in the 1990s but it did not work either. Engineer Hassaballah El Kafrawy sought to turn the canal corridor into an important international region rather than just a passageway for ships.
In 2008, the former Minister of Transportation Mohamed Mansour again proposed the project. However, the Egyptian government again did not take any serious steps to start the project.
In 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood introduced a development project for the Suez Canal region during the presidential elections. In 2013, Prime Minister Hesham Qandil began studying the project and announced that the government would begin to plan for the project.
Projects
New Suez Canal
The New Suez Canal is the name of an under-construction artificial waterway project in Egypt, creating a second shipping lane along part of the Suez Canal. Also, other parts of the Suez Canal will be deepened and widened. The project was inaugurated by the Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish in the presence of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on 5 August 2014.
The New Suez Canal is expected to expand trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia. The new canal will allow ships to sail to both directions in the same time. This will decrease waiting hours from 18 to 11 hours for most ships.the expansion was expected to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day.
The New Suez Canal will be 72 km (45 mi) long, including 35 km (22 mi) of dry digging, and 37 km (23 mi) of "expansion and deep digging". The construction, which was scheduled to take three years, was instead ordered by the President to be completed in a year. The chairman of the Suez Canal Authority announced that the revenues from the Suez Canal (after the completion of the New Suez Canal) will jump from 5 billion dollars to 12.5 billion dollars annually. The Egyptian government said that these revenues will be used to transform the cities along the Canal (Ismaïlia, Suez, and Port Said) into international trading centers. The government has also said that many new projects in the Suez province are being studied as a result of enlarging the Suez Canal capacity, such as building a new industrial zone, fish farms, and the completion of the valley of technology (wadi al thechnologia).
The project costs around 30 billion Egyptian pounds. No foreign investors were allowed to invest in the project, but rather Egyptians were urged to participate in funding the project through a stock market. After President Sisi announced the new megaproject, Egypt's stocks rose to the highest level in the past six years.
The Egyptian Armed Forces participates in the project by helping in digging and designing the canal.
Seven new tunnels
The chairman of the Suez Canal authority announced that 7 new tunnels will be dug to connect the Sinai Peninsula to the Egyptian homeland. 3 tunnels will be dug in Port Said (two for cars and one for railways) and four will be dug in Ismaïlia (two for cars, one for railways, and one for other special uses).
This part of the mega project is under construction (simultaneously with digging the new canal). The tunnels will cost 4.2 billion dollars (approximately about 30 billion Egyptian pounds).
The Egyptian Armed Forces participate in the project by helping in digging the tunnels.
Technology Valley
The technology valley is an old project that has stopped for about 17 years and now the government announced to re-continue the project. The project's location lies on the eastern part of Ismaïlia city and consists of 4 stages: the first stage covers 3021 acres, the second stage covers 4082 acres, the third stage covers 4837 acres, and the fourth stage covers 4160 acres. However, before 17 years when the project started it completed only 108 acres and then stopped for 17 years.
The technology valley will be the first step in starting Egypt's electronics industry for manufacturing technological devices.
Industrial Zone
This project will cover 910 acres of land north west of gulf of Suez. The first stage of the project covers 132 acres and it is done with a cost of 20 million Egyptian pounds. The second stage is 132 acres and it is not yet done. Currently there are 23 factories operating and 56 still under construction. upon finishing the project it will provide 9386 work opportunities.
The chairman of the Suez Canal authority announced that the government will build 18 new factories in the industrial zone which will include: glass factory, car assembling factory, electronics factory, medicines factory, textiles factory, furniture factory, paper factory, sugar factory, food factory, petrochemicals factory, petrol refining factory, light metal manufacturing factory, and a minerals factory.
The chairman of the Suez Canal authority also said that ship factories and services will be built among the Suez Canal corridor which includes: catering and services center for ships, ship manufacturing and repair center, a center for manufacturing and repairing containers, and logistic redistribution centers.
New Ismallia City
This project will create "New Ismalliyah City", which will cover 16500 acres of land. This new city will be created to accommodate approximately 500,000 Egyptians in order to relieve the pressure from the crowded towns of Cairo and the delta cities. The location of this city is designed to accommodate the workers of the nearby Wadi Al-technologiya (Technology Valley) which will be built in following years.
Fish Farming
New fish farms will be built in the eastern side of the Suez Canal. The project is creating 23 tanks that will cover 120 square km with depth of 3-5m. It will cover the area from southern Tafrea to the gulf of Suez. This project is designed to produce high quality fish food. the project also includes building a solar panel that will produce Up to 2500 megawatts and reforming 400,000 acres of land in northern Sinai into farming land using the al-salam canal
Russian Industrial Zone
During a state visit to Russia, President Sisi said that he had agreed with his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin to establish a Russian industrial zone in the new project. However, no more information was given about the project. So the Russian industrial zone is still a proposed project with no studies so far.
Developing Existing Ports
Western Port-said Port
Western Port-said Port lies on the northern entrance of the Suez Canal and is considered one of the most important ports in Egypt because of its location on the entrance of the Suez Canal.
The port covers an area of 2.9 square km (the land area is 1.2 square km and the remaining 1.7 square km is water area). The port contains 37 docks which includes docks for passengers, yachts, and general goods. The port is divided into stations and each station contains a number of docks with its own working area (that includes repairing centers, equipment center, and stores). The maximum capacity of the port is 12 million tons yearly.
Eastern Port-said Port
Eastern Port-said Port lies on the north western entrance of the Suez Canal branch which is a unique location because it connects 3 continents. The design of the port is geometrically ideal. The port was built in 2004 to serve international trading and act as a transit center between the continents.
The port borders the Mediterranean Sea from the north, the industrial zone from the south, the salty lakes from the east, and the Suez Canal branch from the west. The port covers an area of 35 square km.
The port authority plans to build docks the will reach 12 km long and an industrial zone south of the port covering 78 square km. Three stages are still remaining to fully complete and improve the port:
- Stage one is creating 8 stations with docks 8 km long
- Stage two is creating 15 station with docks 16 km long
- Stage three is creating 21 stations with docks 25 km long
El-Sokhna Port
El-Sokhna Port lies on the southern entrance of the Suez Canal.
The port's total size is 24,919,337.85 square m:
- 3,400,000 square m is the water area
- 21,519,337 square m is the land area
- 1,000,000 square m is the Customs center
- The largest dock's size is 7 km long and 5.5 km wide
In 2008, an Emirati company bought the port and announced the plan to build a new 1.3 km dock to work with more than 1 million containers yearly. It also said that a general goods center will be built.
The port serves the oil and gas fields in the region. It exports products from the petrochemicals and refining factories in Ein al Sokhna region. It also exports the products of a ceramic factory, ammonia factory, and a sugar factory.
Arish Port
Arish Port lies on the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Arish city. in 1996 the port was transformed from a fishing port to a trading ships port.
The port contains a dock which is 242m long that can serve huge ships. There is another dock which is 122m long that serves smaller ships. The port also includes covered storage areas which cover 2 square km and non-covered storage areas which cover more than 2.7 square km. On 5 June 2014 the port was no longer controlled by the Port Said port authority, the Ministry of Defence took control of it due to its sensitive location. The port contains a lighthouse that can be seen from up to 18 miles. The main importance of the port is that it exports Sinai products to the Mediterranean countries.
New projects:
- Build a 2 km dock which will include containers station and a general goods station
- Build new storage areas
- Build a dock for yachts
- Build new logistic centers
El-Adabiya Port
El-Adabiya Port lies on the western side of the Suez Canal, about 17 km from Suez city. The Red Sea Ports Authority in Egypt controls the port.
El-Adabiya Port consists of 9 docks which reach 1840m long and 42–27 foot deep. the water area is about 158 square km (which is also shared with the Suez Canal port and Petroleum Dock port) and the land area is 0.8 square km. The maximum carrying capacity of the port reaches 6.7 million tons yearly.
In 2014, the Suez Canal Corridor Project Authority announced that El-Adabiya Port will be improved after the completion of the new Suez Canal to serve more ships.
Notes
All information is from Rose al-Yūsuf magazine.
References
External links
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