Sunday
May062007
Bridging Sinai and Saudi Arabia
Frederik Richter
This is an interesting project:
While I generally think that more infrastructure is badly needed to support inner-Arab trade, I actually don't think this will immediately do much good to South Sinai's economy, which is relatively well-off thanks to its tourism resorts. (It would be the North around El Arish that needs development.) This giant project is likely to destroy more of its precious coral riffs, and certainly means more trucks shipping goods from the Kingdom to Cairo, polluting the air and further damaging already bad roads.
There are also talks between Yemen and Djibouti, by the way, to connect their countries via a bridge as well. This one is planned to carry a railway connection, which definitely should have been contemplated in case of the Sinai bridge as well. But I guess ENR is too busy with repairing all its switches and electrifying its tracks.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah will next week lay the foundation stone for a $1.5 billion bridge project that will link the Kingdom to neighbouring Egypt.
The bridge will link the Sinai region of Egypt, close to the Sharm el-Sheikh resort town, to the northwest of Saudi Arabia near Ras el-Sheikh Humayd.
Two bridges will be built to span the Gulf of Aqaba and Tiran Strait, with Tiran Island used as a halfway point for the 25 km crossing.
While I generally think that more infrastructure is badly needed to support inner-Arab trade, I actually don't think this will immediately do much good to South Sinai's economy, which is relatively well-off thanks to its tourism resorts. (It would be the North around El Arish that needs development.) This giant project is likely to destroy more of its precious coral riffs, and certainly means more trucks shipping goods from the Kingdom to Cairo, polluting the air and further damaging already bad roads.
There are also talks between Yemen and Djibouti, by the way, to connect their countries via a bridge as well. This one is planned to carry a railway connection, which definitely should have been contemplated in case of the Sinai bridge as well. But I guess ENR is too busy with repairing all its switches and electrifying its tracks.
Reader Comments (5)
What a frightening thought. Can you imagine how much that will change the Sinai if there is a steady flow of Saudis? Think Bahrain after the bridge and it became the Saudi playground.
I wonder what kind of security measures will be taken there... First the Israelis must see this with some worry -- it offers a lot of potential to block the opening of the Gulf of Aqaba. Then the Saudis must be afraid of illegal migration to Saudi across the bridge. Then the Egyptians might be worried about terrorism issues coming from Saudi.
Economically, I suppose this will offer the opportunity to massively increase the traffic to Saudi during Hajj. I bet they are looking forward to the new Saudi tourism, and that they will build dedicated resorts to keep the Saudis separate from the Russians and Italians who currently dominate Sharm. Buy land in Sinai now! (if you have an well-placed uncle in the army or mukharabat.)
I have to admit, the first thing I thought when I read about this was to fume at the Israelis. It would be so simple to have a highway linking Jordan and Egypt. But the Israelis had to get Eilat, and now the Arab world is split in two and the project to join the two parts involves massive spending and a lot of ecological damage. What a region. Perhaps the Israelis can be convinced to let the Arabs built a tunnel between Egypt and Jordan?
This sounds like an interesting project, however I'm not terribly excited about the prospect of my favorite places on the Sinai turning into a Saudi tourist spot. If you've been to downtown Beirut in the summer you'll know what I mean.
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Mubarak has apparently backtracked on this:
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Egypt/10125248.html