Iraq to review bids for construction of $6.1bn mega port
Port was previously put on hold while ministry floated a tender for the first stage
The Iraqi Transport Ministry has announced the launch of the first step to establish Faw Port in the southern city of Basra on the Arabian Gulf.
The ministry said it will start reviewing a number of bids submitted by several companies to implement the project. The port is estimated to cost $6.1bn and will have the capacity to move some 36 million tonnes of containerised freight and about 22 million tonnes of dry bulk by 2028.
These will be increased respectively to 7.5 million of twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) and 33 million tonnes, respectively, by 2038. It will also feature a dredged channel 400m wide and 24km long that will connect the new port to the deep water.
The government had laid the foundation stone for the project in April 2010, a year before the Kuwait announced plans to build Mubarak Al Kabeer Port, but Faw’s implementation was put on hold until last May, when the ministry floated a tender for the first stage of the port.
