A BAHRAIN firm has won a contract to develop a huge industrial and logistics hub around the Suez Canal, Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority said.

“The winning consortium to create the masterplan for the Suez Canal area development project is the consortium of Dar Al Handasah Shair and Partners, which is registered in Bahrain, in alliance with Dar Al Handasah Egypt,” said Suez Canal Authority’s Lieutenant General Mohab Memish.

He said the project would involve 35 km of “dry digging” and 37 km would be “expansion and deepening”, indicating that the current 163-km-long Suez Canal could be widened as part of the project.

Egypt also plans to build a new 72-km Suez Canal alongside this near-145 year-old historic waterway in a multi-billion dollar project aimed at expanding trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia.