Original news was published 30 January, 2015
Iraq may open its Grand Faw Port project to foreign investors. The multi-billion project, located south of Basra, has been stalled for several years.
“The transport ministry is unable to execute the Grand Faw port project, which will have a total cost of nearly six billion dollars,” Iraq’s Transport Minister Baqr Jabr Al-Zubeidi said in a press conference, according to Emirates 24/7. “We cannot secure these funds so the ministry is studying awarding the project on an investment basis for execution.”
Construction progress on the port has been limited. In 2013, Korea’s Daewoo Engineering & Construction won a US$693 million contract to build Grand Faw’s breakwater. Daewoo was to complete the 15.8-kilometer western breakwater by 2016, but the project was delayed due to political conflicts and security issues.
Italian engineering firm Technital has prepared the designs for the port, which will have a capacity of 99 million tonnes per year, a 39-kilometer container quay and another 2-kilometer berth for general cargo, Al-Zubeidi said. According to Iraq’s plan, goods unloaded at the new port would then be loaded onto a new railway system and reach Europe overland more quickly than ships might reach Egypt’s Suez Canal.
*NEWS SOURCE
