Turkish Today's Zaman highlights New Suez Canal opening

Turkish Today's Zaman newspaper highlighted Egypt's national celebrations of inaugurating the major extension of the Suez Canal.

The $8 billion New Suez Canal project was completed in just one year instead of three on President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's orders, the paper said.

Today's Zaman said the project involved extending a waterway parallel to part of the 19th century canal connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, as well as deepening and widening the old channel - the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

"The project has been billed as a national accomplishment on par with President Gamal Abdel Nasser's nationalization of the original Suez Canal in 1956 and building of the Aswan Dam."

The new canal, which consists of 37 kilometer of new, parallel waterway and 35 kilometers of deepening and widening of the existing canal, will cut the waiting period for vessels from 18 hours to 11.