JEDDAH, 9 February 2006 — Egypt is promoting a $3 billion causeway across the Red Sea linking the country’s Sharm Al-Sheikh resort with Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Duba port. This follows the recent ferry tragedy that claimed hundreds of Egyptian and tens of Saudi lives.
“Implementation of the causeway project has now become essential to avoid marine transport tragedies and the long wait of Egyptian pilgrims for ships at Saudi ports,” Egyptian Transport Minister Muhammad Mansour said.
The project was first made public two years ago when the Egyptian transport minister at the time said the two countries were planning to establish a causeway across the Red Sea to facilitate transportation of pilgrims, tourists and cargo. The minister added that the project would cost $3 billion and its implementation would depend on technical studies.
Tabuk Governor Prince Fahd ibn Sultan referred to the project last year when he met Amr Al-Dabbagh, governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.
“There were intensive negotiations between Saudi and Egyptian officials on the causeway in the past,” Al-Madinah Arabic daily quoted Mansour as saying.
Talks on the project came to the fore again this week after the Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 sank as it sailed from Duba in Saudi Arabia to the Egyptian port of Safaga.
Al-Madinah also quoted Egyptian government sources as saying that Cairo would present the project, which will take three years to complete, to Arab and non-Arab investors in order to implement it quickly. Nearly 1.3 million people, mostly low-income Egyptians and Saudi tourists, use ferries to travel between the two countries in a year.
Saudi authorities have so far recovered 239 bodies after the Feb. 3 tragedy and handed them over to Egypt. The ship was carrying more than 1,400 people.
According to El-Salam shipping company, owners of the doomed ship, 426 survivors were pulled from the sea, leaving close to 1,000 dead or missing.
Saudi officials in Cairo have identified eight bodies of Saudi passengers. “So far we have identified 13 Saudi bodies, including five in Saudi Araba,” a Saudi Interior Ministry official said, adding that 43 Saudis were still missing.
