Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved a plan to expand the Suez Canal after a ship, the 220,000-metric-ton container ship Ever Given, got stuck for about a week earlier this year causing chaos as a massive traffic jam of ships built up behind it until it was moved.
Egyptian authorities are seeking damages of $600 million from the ship’s owners.
The canal which links the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea was built in the 19th century by the British and carries a significant volume of the world’s ocean traffic.
The Suez Canal Authority plans to widen and deepen around 40km of the canal, including the area where the ship became stuck recently. The project will include widening the canal by 40 metres between the city of Suez and the Great Bitter Lake north of there. That area will also be deepened by about 20 to 22 metres, according to the state-owned Al-Ahram news outlet.