Iraq to start work on $ 6 billion port

Reuters: Iraq will invite bids for the building of a breakwater in the Gulf, the country’s State port company said, the first stage of construction in a giant $ 6 billion port scheme that has been held up for decades by sanctions and war.

The port, known as Grand Faw, is to be built south of Iraq’s oil hub, Basra. Iraq has had plans to build a modern trade hub in the Gulf since the 1980s, but these were shelved early in former dictator Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Omran Rahdi Thani, General Manager of the General Company for Ports of Iraq, told Reuters the Transportation Ministry would soon seek bids to build the breakwater, which is expected to cost around 400 billion dinars ($340 million).

Iraq relies on ports in neighbouring Kuwait for much of its non-oil trade.

A modern port is part of a long-term goal to turn Iraq into a transportation corridor between the Middle East and Europe -- bypassing the Suez Canal -- by rebuilding a colonial-era railway linking the Gulf to Turkey.

“If Grand Faw port is completed it would be a major event for world transportation. We will shorten the time to reach Europe from 20 days to three or four,” Thani said.

The port will include 7,000 metres (23,000 feet) of dock to receive container ships. The dock for general cargo would be 3,500 metres.

Iraq has huge untapped oil reserves and since the 1980s has been sitting on plans for extravagant development projects, such as a metro railway system for traffic-choked Baghdad and a high-speed railway linking Baghdad to Basra. Officials frequently talk about restarting such projects, but have made little headway since Saddam was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2003. Much of the country has only intermittent electricity and many areas lack running water.