Suez Canal Tunnels shorten the transit time to 20 min.: al-Wazir

CAIRO – 5 March 2018: Chairman of Armed Forces Engineering Authority Kamel al-Wazir said that Suez Canal tunnels shortened the transit time of the Canal to 20 minutes instead of waiting on the Canal’s ferries and el-Salam Bridge that could extend to 5 days.

Al Wazir pointed out that the Armed forces Engineering Authority contracted four national companies to implement the tunnels project, adding that four giant drilling machines were assembled by a German company.

He added that owning these drilling machine will help in rationalizing the implementation cost of the project and to have the ability to implement other projects at any time, whether inside or outside Egypt.

This came during the visit of President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman to Ismailia to check national projects at Suez Canal.

Chairman of Armed Forces Engineering Authority said that the authority received the project land by the end of February 2015 and started drilling the tunnels once the drilling machines arrived in November 2015 till May 2016.

Al-Wazir stated that the daily rate of drilling in the Egyptian tunnels reached 36 meters per day, while the world average is only 10 meters per day.

The drilling rate reached 220 meters long in the week, while the world average is 70 meters long in the week, according to al-Wazir.

The number of workers in the project reached 10,000 including the engineers, technicians and workers under the leadership of armed forces engineering authority.