A plan to join the Red Sea with Mediterranean — an alternative to the Suez Canal

Subject: Geography

Section: Places in news

Ben Gurion Canal Project:

First envisioned in the 1960s.
Named after Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973).
Aim: To develop an alternate canal system that ends the monopoly of the Suez Canal.
It is over 100 km longer than the Suez Canal.
The idea is to cut a canal through the Israeli-controlled Negev Desert from the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba — the eastern arm of the Red Sea that juts into Israel’s southern tip and south-western Jordan — to the Eastern Mediterranean coast, thus creating an alternative to the Egyptian-controlled Suez Canal that starts from the western arm of the Red Sea and passes to the southeastern Mediterranean through the northern Sinai peninsula.

Challenges in developing this canal project:

About the Suez Canal:

Opened in 1869.
It revolutionised global maritime trade.
By connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas through the Isthmus of Suez, it ensured that ships travelling between Europe and Asia would not have to travel all the way around the continent of Africa.
The canal cut the distance between London and Mumbai by more than 41 per cent.
In the 2022-23 fiscal year, around 26,000 vessels crossed the Suez Canal, accounting for approximately 13 per cent of global shipping.

Challenges with the Suez Canal:

The 193 km-long, 205 m-wide, and 24 m-deep Suez Canal is the world’s biggest shipping bottleneck.
- In March 2021, the mammoth cargo ship Ever Given got stuck in the canal, blocking passage for more than a week.
- It was estimated that the resulting “traffic jam” held up an estimated $ 9.6 billion of goods every day.
In 1956, after President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-70) decided to nationalise the canal, war broke out, with the UK, France, and Israel attacking Egypt in order to regain control. In the end, Egypt got control over the canal.
It was also the focal point of both the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars and was shut from 1967-75.
Egypt collects all the toll revenue generated, in addition to the benefits it brings to its local economy.
- In the 2022-23 fiscal year, Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority saw toll revenues reach a record $ 9.4 billion — accounting for nearly 2 per cent of Egypt’s GDP of $ 476.8 billion.

Source of this article: Indian Express