Suez Canal Will Work Round The Clock to Get All Ships Through After Unblocking - Source

CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2021) The Suez Canal will be working 24/7 after it is unblocked, in order to let through all the vessels that are now waiting for the Ever Given container ship to be moved, a source in the Gulf Agency Company (GAC), the canal's operator, told Sputnik.

"Once the canal resumes its work, it will be operating around the clock to get all the ships waiting in line through," the source said, explaining that normally, all vessels are required to clear the Suez Canal by 23:00.

According to the source, the front part of Ever Given has moved a little, but it is not enough to free the ship.

"We cannot give the exact timing of when the operation will end, it can happen at any time," the source told Sputnik.

According to GAC, there are over 300 ships waiting to pass through the canal.

A Sputnik correspondent reported on Sunday that the blockage of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given container ship was causing a traffic jam of vessels that could be seen 65 kilometers (40 miles) from the canal's southern entrance in the Red Sea.

Osama Rabie, the head of the Suez Canal Authority, said on Sunday that 369 vessels were waiting to pass through.

On Friday, Ever Given's operator, the Taiwanese Evergreen Marine Corporation, said it was going to take two or three days to free the ship. The situation is complicated by the size of the vessel and the number of containers on it.

The 1,300-feet-long Ever Given has been stuck in the Suez Canal since Tuesday, when it ran aground on its way from China to the Netherlands. Several attempts have been made to move it, but none of them were enough to fully free the ship.