Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chairman Mohab Mamish officially called on international maritime navigation lines to use the New Suez Canal, scheduled to be inaugurated August 6.
Dubbed the Suez Canal Axis, the new 72-kilometre (45-mile) section built by the Egyptian army is aimed at speeding up traffic along the existing waterway by reducing the waiting period, as well as boosting revenues.
Mamish assured the new canal is safe and well-prepared to receive the crossing ships. He added that with the new Suez Canal project inaugurated in August 6, vessels traffic in the waterway will be the fastest all over the world.
Preparations for the inaugural ceremony were in full swing in Ismailiya amid a widespread campaign to clean the city, an AFP correspondent reported.
Suez Canal Axis runs part of the way along the existing canal connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
Mamish said that during the August 6 inauguration ceremony, the SCA will announce the inauguration of a new fish farming project. “By 2023, revenues from the Suez Canal will reach $13.4 billion.”
By allowing full two-way traffic, the new canal will allow vessels to transit the canal in 11 hours, compared to 22 hours before, and is expected to boost revenues from the canal from $5 billion per year to $15 billion per year by 2023.
In previous remarks to reporters, Mamish said the works of leveling the bottom of the New Suez Canal would be completed Wednesday and all dredging machines will leave the canal Thursday.
“During the upcoming few hours, the stone pitching works of the 72km-long canal’s two sides will be completed,” he said.
The first trial run of the new canal was carried out July 25.
The army led work 11 months ago on the $8-billion canal, flanking the existing, 145-year-old waterway and part of a larger undertaking to expand trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia.