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Canal chairman: Suez expansion will be operational by first quarter.

Osama Rabia, chairman of the Canal Authority said that the new section of the Suez Canal will be operational by the first quarter this year.

Rabie, in a press release, said that the navy will reissue navigational charts after adding the 10-km extension (6.2 miles) to the canal.

Egypt announced on Saturday that it had tested a new 10-km section near the southern end of the canal, despite a decline in revenue caused by Houthi attacks against vessels in the Red Sea.

The Suez Canal Authority has confirmed that two ships have successfully passed through the new section of the canal during a test run.

Egypt has accelerated its plans to widen and extend the second canal in the southernmost reaches of this waterway. This was a result of the grounding of container ship Ever Given, which blocked the important waterway for 6 days.

The Suez Canal Authority reports that the new expansion has increased the length of the two-way section from 72 km to 82 kilometers. Total length of the canal is 193 kilometers.

The Suez Canal in Egypt connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean and is the fastest route to transport fuel, food, and consumer goods to Europe from Asia and Middle East.

The route is used to transport up to one third of global container cargo including furniture, frozen food, tennis shoes and toys. (Reporting and writing by Momen Saeed atallah; editing by Bernadettebaum and Jan Harvey).

(source: Reuters)