The Kuwaiti cabinet has approved a vital project to develop the island of Bubyan to serve northern regions and satisfy growing regional demand for cargo and shipping facilities, particularly in light of opening the Iraqi market.
According to a feasibility study, prepared by Booz Allen Hamilton, and the Kuwaiti Consultancy and Investment Company, demand to commodities unloaded at the northern ports is likley to rise. Within this framework, activity of imported-exported packaged commodities in Kuwait is predicted to grow by 2-5 percent per year in the coming 20 years.
Accomodation capacity of the five existing northern ports - Al-Shuwaikh, Al-Shuaiba, Um Qasr, Khor Al-Zubair and Basra, is estimated at 40 million tons per year. It is projected to rise to 68 million tons by the year 2020, thus these harbors lack 28 million tons accomodation capacity for storage and unloading of products in Kuwait and Iraq.
According to KUNA, the cost of the project, whose construction is due to start next year and end by the year 2016, is put at $850 million. The port will be ready for ship docking in the year 2008, with four docks.
The island of Bubyan is located in the northern part of Kuwait, boasting over 650 square kilometers of space, or about five percent of the total area of Kuwait. The island is about 40 kiometers long and 30 kilometers wide. (menareport.com)
