OREANDA-NEWS. The loss from the accident, which occurred in the Suez Canal, may amount to $1 billion. This was stated by Osama Rabia, the head of the waterway administration, in a conversation with journalists on April 1. The channel management said, that the captain of the ship is the indirect culprit of the incident.

«We will keep calculations, take into account all the funds, that we have used since the first day of the incident, spending on the work of tugs and dredging vessels, that worked around the clock. This is a significant amount. The damage is estimated at $1 billion», the Russian media «RIA Novosti» quoted Rabia.

On March 24, the container ship «Ever Given» completely blocked the Suez Canal, running aground. The ship, 400 meters long and 59 meters wide, was heading from China to Rotterdam. Because of the incident, 369 vessels, including 25 oil tankers, were stuck in traffic. Navigation on the channel was resumed on March 29, after rescue crews moved and towed the container ship.

Earlier, Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky proposed to build a new canal instead of the Suez Canal. He dedicated a post to this topic on Twitter. He wrote, that it would be better to build a channel from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea together with Iran. It would be good to receive bulk carriers in Astrakhan, and then transport cargo to Europe by rail.