Egyptian Culture ministry gears up for new Suez Canal inauguration

The Ministry of Culture has finalized preparations for the inauguration ceremony of the new Suez Canal project, slated for August 6, Minister Abdel Wahed el Nabawy said Sunday.

The ministry will organize 27 events across the country to celebrate this mega project on August 6, he noted.

Nabawy said he ordered the ministry's sector of foreign cultural relations to contact the foreign embassies in Egypt to participate in the opening ceremony.

Chairman of the General Authority of Cultural Palaces Mohamed Nasef said the celebrations will start on August 1 and end on August 31 in several governorates, including Suez, Ismailia, Port Said and Sinai.

Several troupes will take part in celebrations marking the opening of the new Suez Canal project, Nasef added

The enlarged Suez Canal will allow ships to sail in both directions at the same time over much of the canal's length. This is expected to decrease waiting hours from 11 to 3 hours for most ships and to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day.

Revenues from the Suez Canal would jump from 5 billion dollars to 12.5 billion dollars annually.

The construction of the new canal was initially scheduled to take five years. It was then first reduced to three years and finally ordered by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to be completed in one year only.