Suez Canal tunnels open 24 hours a day

Egypt has decided that tunnels of the Suez Canal will operate 24 hours a day to facilitate the movement of people and to serve development projects in the area.

The 24-hour opening kicked off on Sunday in a first since they were inaugurated, Emirati newspaper The National reports.

The tunnels are Tahyia Misr in Ismailia and July 3 in Port Said.

There will only be partial closures on Saturday and Sunday from 2 am until 8 am local time for maintenance work. The decision was ordered by President Abdel Al-Sisi to improve connections between the Sinai and the region of El Wadi el-Gedid.

Meanwhile on August 6 Egypt celebrated the fifth anniversary of the inauguration of the new Suez Canal which brough a 4.7% increase in financial revenues to 27.2 billion dollars over the last five years compared to the 25.9 billion over the 2010-2015 period.