Chief of Staff of the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces Kamel al-Wazir who supervises the digging of the new Suez Canal project announced on Thursday that the al-Marfaa dredger which belongs to the UAE has entered the newly-digged channel, being the first dredger to enter the new channel.
The dredger's capacity is estimated at 50,000 meters per day, added Wazir. Beside the dredger, 300 loader backhoes, diggers and vehicles are working on drilling the channel around the clock.
About 150 million cubic meters of sand have been lifted from the new channel, equal to 82 percent of the target during the first phase.
Eighty-tree companies, 4,250 pieces of equipment and 22,000 workers will drill 180 million cubic meters of sand in the first phase, according to Wazir.
Wazir said the Arab Contractors and Orascom companies have been handed over the site of the tunnels they are supposed to work on south Port Said.
Concord and Petrojet companies have been handed over the site of tunnels they should work on in Ismailia.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
