JEDDAH, 3 May 2007 — During his visit to the Kingdom’s northern region next week, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah is expected to launch a number of important projects, including the long-awaited Saudi-Egyptian Causeway which will link the continents of Asia and Africa.
The Saudi monarch, who is visiting the region for the first time since becoming king in 2005, will also open the project for the construction of Tabuk University. The first phase of the project will cost about SR1 billion ($375 million) and include 16 colleges.
Informed sources said King Abdullah would lay the foundation stone for the 50-km causeway linking Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The causeway will be built in three years at a cost of $3 billion. It will link Ras Humaid in Tabuk with Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt and pass through Tiran Island. A consortium of Saudi, Egyptian and international companies will implement the project without causing financial liability to either government, the sources said.
Tabuk Gov. Prince Fahd ibn Sultan previously discussed the feasibility of the project with Amr Al-Dabbagh, governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.
“The causeway has been the dream of most Egyptians since it was first proposed about 10 years ago,” said Ali Masoud, an Egyptian journalist working in the Kingdom. He said the causeway would not only facilitate transport between the two countries but would also link the Asian and African continents. “It will have a great socio-economic and political impact on the region,” Masoud said.
“Many Saudi businessmen will support the project as it will facilitate transportation of goods, especially vegetables, between the two countries,” Masoud said, adding that the project would help bring down vegetable prices in the Kingdom.
He said the project would also strengthen relations between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the two most influential countries in the region. “The causeway will benefit many countries in the Gulf and Africa and will bring about a dramatic change in transportation between the two continents,” he explained.
Fouad Abdul Aziz Khaleel, adviser to the Egyptian transport minister and chairman of the Arab Roads Administration, said the causeway could be completed within three years with the support of specialized international companies. Khaleel expressed the hope that companies involved in the project, developing the causeway on a build-operate-transfer basis, could recoup their investment within a decade of its completion. He said the causeway would reduce transportation time between the two countries to 20 minutes. “It will also lessen the difficulties of workers traveling between the two continents,” he added.
The ferry tragedy that claimed hundreds of Egyptian and tens of Saudi lives in February last year revived interest in the causeway project. In a statement soon after the tragedy, Egyptian Transport Minister Muhammad Mansour said the implementation of the causeway project had become essential to avoid marine transport tragedies. Before the El-Salam ferry tragedy, 10 boats were operating between Dhuba and Safaga weekly. Now it has been reduced to two.
Between 50,000 to 70,000 Egyptians go on the annual pilgrimage to Makkah and an estimated 1.2 million Egyptians work in the Arabian Peninsula, mainly as construction workers. “The bridge will not be too long and the relatively shallow sea in that area allows for such construction,” said Ibrahim Kamel, an Egyptian architect and businessman.
