The Emirati maritime terminal operator DP World has begun to construct the second station of containers at the Ain Sokhna port, following a four-year hiatus.
Transportation Minister Hany Dahy disclosed on Saturday during his visit to the port an agreement with DP World for work on the second station this month to be inaugurated in October 2017 and reducing the duration of achievement from four years to two and a half years.
“Investments of the the second containers station are estimated at LE5 billion,” he said adding that construction of the station will increase capacity of the port up to three million containers annually.
In 2010, DP World signed contract with Egyptian government to establish the second container station to be finished in 2014. However, achievement was postponed in the wake of 2011 uprising.
The minister, along with Mohab Mamish, chairman of Suez Canal Authority and other authorities carrying out the Suez Canal development project, proposed projects in Ain Sokhna to be proposed in the economic summit slated for March.
Dahy indicated Ain Sokhna has 20 percent of the domestic trade volume in addition to being an important source for development.
Terrorist operations at the railways caused losses of LE250 million, the minister said pointing to coordination with Interior Ministry on security trains and stops.
Dahy also stressed necessity to end the national roads project, carried out by the ministry, at the deadline.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
