After 154 days of starting work on the new Suez Canal Project, 174 million cubic meters of dry land dredging have been completed, project supervisor Kamal el-Waziri said.
The total number of workers on site is nearly 23,000 (engineers, technicians, workers and drivers) through 84 companies in addition to two battalions of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, Waziri said.
The project is scheduled to be completed after 211 days, he added.
On August 5, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi attended the inauguration of the waterway to be dug alongside the Suez Canal.
It is meant to add an extra lane to the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important thoroughfares for trade, in an attempt to increase the number of ships using it each day.
The Suez Canal, which allows ships to travel from Europe to Asia without passing through southern Africa, only provides for one-way traffic, with occasional room for ships to pass each other. The new lane would allow ships to travel in both directions at the same time.