Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority is planning to develop an extension to the access channel at the East Port Said terminal, in a bid to boost the flow of vessels from the canal to the Mediterranean Sea.

Sources close to the project tell MEED the project will cost about $60m and will take seven months to complete.

It is understood the new access channel will be 9.5 kilometres long and 18.5 metres deep, to speed up shipping movement at the end of the canal.

The expansion of the terminal will give vessels and containers 24-hour access to the port, and is expected to increase revenues. The scheme is in line with the country’s ambitions to enhance the Suez Canal corridor as an international logistics hub.

UK news agency Reuters has reported that the Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT), which is 55 per cent owned by the Netherlands’ Maersk Group, will partly finance the project as part of an agreement with Cairo signed in 2007 to develop the East Port Said terminal.

The procurement process of the scheme is unclear, although a source close to the scheme tells MEED that work is due to start soon after the new Suez Canal expansion ceremony on 6 August.

The project comes just days before the inauguration of the new Suez Canal expansion, which is being positioned by the government as the flagship project of the government’s economic vision.

The Suez Canal is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt.

Egypt hopes the canal authority will increase its annual revenue from $5.3bn in 2015 to $13.2bn in 2023.