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Work has begun to widen the twin lanes of the Suez Canal through the deployment of dredgers. The state-owned Suez Canal Authority (SCA) announced last week that it was planning to extend a second canal lane that opened in 2015 by 10 km, to make it 82 km long, and would widen and deepen a single-lane stretch at the southern end of the canal.

This follows directives from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi “to immediately start implementing the proposed development plan and put in place a timetable for completion as soon as possible", the SCA said on May 15. The work will be carried out by the largest dredger in the Middle East, the Mohab Mamish, which arrived in Egypt last month. This is to prevent another accident like this year’s grounding of the 440-meter Ever Given container ship from March 23-29.