Iraq is planning to construct 100 berths within its Grand Faw Port project that will turn the OPEC member into a major transshipment hub in the region, an Iraqi official was reported on Tuesday as saying.
South Korea’s Daewoo Company has completed the project’s five main piers as part of a $2.7 billion contract it won nearly three years ago, said Inmar Al-Safi, information director at the General Company for Ports in Iraq, an affiliate of the Transport Ministry.
Safi told the official Iraqi news agency that work is now underway to build one of the world’s largest subsea tunnel that will link the Southern port of Faw with the nearby Umm Qasr Port and other areas, adding that it would be completed within 4 years.
“Phase one of the project has almost been completed and it involved the construction of five main piers by the South Korean company,” Safi said.
“The last phase of the project includes the construction of nearly 100 quays that will serve the port,” he added without providing further details.
Faw Port will have a capacity to handle 99 million tonnes annually, making it one of the world’s largest container terminals.
The project was launched in 2010 but was blocked by cash shortages due to internal hostilities and low oil prices.
Source: Reuters (Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)