The consortium of Bahrain-based Dar al-Handasah Consultants (Shair and Partners) firm, and its Egyptian subsidiary Dar al-Handasah Masr was chosen for planning the master plans of the Suez Canal Corridor project, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish announced on Tuesday.

The consultancy met more than 86 percent of the requirements in the tender specifications, Mamish told a televised conference attended by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab in Ismailia province located on west bank of the Suez Canal.

"The project will push the development train forward," Mamish said, noting that the project, which develops north Sinai along with three canal provinces of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said, will build more than five ports besides the new Suez Canal.

Only 13 of more than 46 international firms subscribed to plan the project were approved, the Suez chairman added.

The World Bank recommended EGIS, a French consultative firm for choosing the winning tenderer, and the Suez Canal authority has approved it, he added.

On Aug. 5, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced launching a new parallel Suez Canal to the current one to be implemented in one year.

The new artificial waterway, which is part of a larger project to expand Suez ports and shipping facilities, is designed to raise Egypt's international profile, and build the nation as a major trade hub.

The current Suez Canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea generates annual revenues of nearly five billion U.S. dollars. It has been an essential source for hard currency along with tourism, which has been withering since 2011 uprising that toppled the former president Hosni Mubarak.

President Sisi's government is reviving and expanding a series of projects initiated in the 1990s under the Mubarak government, hoping to revive the country's ailing economy over the past three years and address the growing unemployment crisis.

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