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Saudi Arabia mulls building causeway to Egypt

November 27, 2018 at 2:12 am

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman Al-Saud (L) meets Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Cairo, Egypt on 27 November 2018 [Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Kingdom Council/Handout]

Saudi Arabia is currently mulling the possibility of constructing a causeway to connect the kingdom with Egypt, the country’s transport minister, Nabil Al-Amoudi, announced yesterday.

“King Salman Bridge will allow the passage of vehicles, and freight and passenger trains,” Al-Amoudi told state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The bridge, he explained, will link the kingdom’s north-western Red Sea coastal city of Tabuk with Egypt’s the Sinai Peninsula, passing through the country’s touristic resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The minister pointed out that the construction of the Saudi-funded bridge would take around eight years, with an expected total cost of $4-5 billion.

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The Saudi-Egypt causeway, which length is expected at 7-9 kilometres, is planned to achieve $200 billion of trade revenues per year.

The project was first proposed by the Saudi monarch, King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, during the Egyptian-Saudi summit, which was held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo in April 2016. The agreement was also witnessed by the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, arrived in Egypt earlier on Monday, as part of his first foreign tour since the murder of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.

Nearly 100 Egyptian journalists officially rejected Salman’s visit saying that “the Saudi regime is violating human values, especially the right to live, both for its citizens and Egyptians and non-Egyptians working in the kingdom.”