Project to expand the Suez Canal would be completed in July 2023, estimates the president of the SCA

A project to expand parts of the Suez Canal would be completed after two years of work in July 2023, the president of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).

The SCA announced accelerated plans to extend a second canal channel and widen an existing one after the container ship Ever Given ran aground and blocked the waterway for six days last year.

“The project will be complete in 24 months. We start in July 2021 and, God willing, we will finish in July 2023,” said the president. Osama Rabie outside of an event Dubai. Ships pass through the canal in convoys and the extension of the second lane would increase capacity by six ships, Rabie said, without elaborating.

The southernmost 30 kilometers of the channel, where the Ever Given was stranded, will be widened 40 meters to the east and deepened by 20 meters to about 22 meters, according to previously announced plans.

“This will improve ship navigation by 28% in this difficult part of the channel,” Rabie said.

The Suez Canal Authority and its companies were developing the entire project, he said.