Today, Thursday, Lieutenant General Kamel Al-Wazir, Minister of Transport, conducted an inspection tour of the Sokhna Port development project, which is considered one of the main components of the Sokhna-Dekheila logistical corridor. This comes within the framework of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s directives to implement the project to establish the Sokhna-Alexandria integrated logistical axis for containers to link Bahrain, Red And the Mediterranean, which is the largest logistical corridor serving global trade between East and West.
At the beginning of the round; The team inspected the entire first station of the port development project (Hutchison Container Terminal), which was handed over to the largest container terminal operator in the world, Hutchison International, and the global shipping line alliance COSCO and CMA, to develop it as the largest container terminal in the Arab Republic of Egypt. Its length is 2,600 metres, its total area is 1.6 million square metres, and its capacity is 3.5 million equivalent containers/year, thus allowing it to receive giant ships with a length of 400 metres, according to the commitment contract signed for the project of constructing the superstructure, managing, operating, exploiting, maintaining and re-delivering a container terminal in Sokhna Port. The implementation of which comes alongside the implementation of the project to construct the superstructure, manage, operate, exploit, maintain and re-deliver the container terminal at Berth 100 in Dekheila.
On the other hand; The Minister of Transport listened to a presentation by Major General Mohamed Khalil, Director of the Port Development Project, about the station’s current position after handing over to Hutchison and the latest developments regarding the construction of the station’s superstructure, where the equipment and cranes for the superstructure work were contracted in preparation for their supply to the station.
The Minister of Transport stressed the need for the superstructure work at Berth 100 to be carried out in parallel with the work currently being carried out, as is happening at the Sokhna station, for the speed of completion, noting that the state is working on transforming the ports of Sokhna and Dekheila into pivotal ports, and increasing Egypt’s share of the market. International Transit Trade.
He noted that these two projects are considered an important step towards implementing this logistical axis by exploiting the high-speed electric train to transport containers, and linking with production and consumption areas, logistical centers and dry ports, through the logistical corridor and achieving the maximum benefit from the infrastructure of Egyptian ports and multimodal transport, which includes roads, railways, And river transport, and using the two stations as gateways to provide integrated supply chains to serve global trade.
He added that the project to establish the superstructure, manage, operate, exploit, maintain, and redeliver a container terminal at Sokhna Port comes within the framework of the comprehensive plan to complete the development of Sokhna Port, which is currently being implemented, to become the largest pivotal port on the Red Sea. The general location of the port was planned to match the most modern international ports, in order to serve the movement of regional and international trade.
He pointed out that this cooperation with the largest global alliance in the field of managing and operating shipping lines and international container terminals comes within the framework of the comprehensive plan of the Ministry of Transport to form strategic partnerships with the largest companies managing and operating international container terminals and shipping lines to ensure the arrival and frequency of the largest possible number of international ships at Egyptian ports. Doubling the operating capacity of ports and expanding transit trade.
The Minister of Transport inspected the ongoing development work in the port, where the rates of work implementation and the progress of internal road and basin projects were monitored, as well as the new railway line inside the port and the administrative buildings being constructed.
He also inspected the extension works of a number of docks and their general plan, as well as the land use plan around them, while the development project manager explained that the total area of the port is 25 km2 and that the work being implemented is the construction of 5 new docks and the construction of berths 18 km long and 18 m deep, making the total The length of the berths in the port is 23 km, and the establishment of trading yards with an area of 8.6 km2, bringing the total number of yards to 10.6 km2, and logistical areas with an area of 6.3 km2, and the construction of railway lines connected to the high-speed electric train of Sokhna/El Alamein/Marsa Matrouh, and a network of internal roads with a length of 17 km paving is being constructed. Concrete, 3 lanes/direction, to connect the docks and the port as a whole, which contributes to the absence of any future crowding inside the port, in addition to constructing breakwaters with a length of 3,270 meters.
He pointed out that the percentage of dry excavation works reached 91% (as 100% of the docks have been excavated and work is underway in the trading yards) and the percentage of dredging works reached 62% (the total amount of dredging is 70 million cubic meters, and 17 million cubic meters were carried out by drying works + 26.5 million cubic meters through dredging works. The percentage of implementation of railway works (electric/diesel train) with a length of 34 km was 35%, the docks were 97%, the port breakwaters were 99%, and the internal roads were 75%. The total percentage of implementation of the development project was 93.50%.
