Egypt said it has completed the planning of a bridge that would link Saudi Arabia to its Sinai Peninsula and eventually connect Asia and Europe by rail.
Egyptian transport minister Kamel al-Wazir told Reuters during an economic conference organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt: “We have now completed the planning for the bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and are ready to implement it at any time – whether a bridge or a tunnel.
“But the (current) solution for connecting Egypt with Saudi Arabia and Jordan is through the Arab Bridge Maritime Company, which currently has 13 vessels that can take cargo between Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.”
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz first floated the idea for the 32-kilometer-long bridge during a state visit to Egypt in 2016. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi suggested that the bridge across the Strait of Tiran be called the King Salman bin Abdulaziz Bridge. At that time, it was estimated that the total cost of the project would be US$4 billion and it would be funded by Saudi Arabia.
The long-planned bridge to link Saudi Arabia’s Ras Hamid to an area near Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh area is yet to be finalised, but Egypt has been expanding its railways along seven separate axes, al-Wazir told Reuters. These include three high-speed lines that would connect Sokhna Port on the Red Sea with the Mediterranean and Alexandria in the north and with Aswan in the far south.
Rail cargo would be sent to a series of ports on the Mediterranean that Egypt has been upgrading over the last decade. The high-speed train line connecting to Egypt’s south would skirt the edge of the pyramids area in the desert, while simultaneously serving the site, he added.
In September 2023, local media reported that Egypt was investing nearly US$7.8 billion in the first phase of its 2,000-km high-speed electric train network. The project was awarded to Germany’s Siemens Mobility and its Egyptian partners Orascom Construction and the Arab Contractors Company, and is scheduled to be completed in three phases.
A proposed route through the site of Abydos, where Egypt’s first pharaohs were buried 5,000 years ago, has been diverted to pass over the plateau above and away from the antiquities site.
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