CAIRO - Egypt announced on Tuesday it will launch a project to dig a new 72-km canal alongside the original Suez Canal, Head of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish said during the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal Corridor project.

He said the new project aims to create "a new Suez Canal parallel to the current channel," Mohab Mamish told a televised conference attended by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Ismailia province.

The new project will be implemented in one year from now, and is expected to provide more than one million job opportunities, said Mamish.

He also noted that, instead entrusting the project to foreign investment, Egypt intends to allow its the country's own companies to build the giant waterway.