Qatar: Foundation Stone Laid for New Doha Port Project

The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani laid the foundation stone of the multi-billion dollar New Doha Port Project at the Mesaieed City yesterday.

Also present at the ground- breaking ceremony were the Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Emiri Diwan H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, the Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammad bin Saleh Al Sada, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority and head of the project’s steering committee Abdulaziz Mohammad Al Nuaimi and other dignitaries and accredited diplomats.

The most important and largest seaport in the region, the ‘New Doha Port Project,’ once completed, will be able to handle goods approximately 15 times of the present capacity of 400,000 TEU (Twenty Equivalent Unit), said a senior official of the project.

 “We want this project to be one of the best in the world, which will be fully equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for the easy and smooth handling of goods and services. The project will also create a large number of jobs in the public and private sectors. Our wise and visionary leadership is committed to provide all kinds of needful resources including financial resources to make this project a great success,” said Al-Attiyah.

On the significance of the ambitious project, the Minister of Energy and Industry, Al Sada said: “This is one of the biggest and most ambitious projects of His Highness in line with the ‘Qatar National Vision 2030’. It is strategically located in Mesaieed City to meet Qatar’s requirements well beyond 2030.”

Initially, the project was planned to be constructed on an area spread over 20 square kilometres with an estimated cost of QR16bn, but now it has been stretched to 26.5 square kilometres.

The estimated cost of the project is QR25.5bn. It will be built in three different phases. The first phase is scheduled for completion by 2016. While the second and third phases are slated for completion by 2020 and 2030 respectively.

The port, after the completion of first phase, will have a capacity to handle about 2mnt TEU per annum. But once all the three phases are completed, the port will be able to ship around 6mnt TEU annually. The port has been designed in such a way that it will able to handle world’s largest ships having 12,000 containers.

The venture involves a consortium of companies which are taking care of the specific works. The New Doha Port Project (NDPP) Steering Committee is responsible for the completion of the project. And the contract for the dredging related works for the first phase has already been awarded to the China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd (CHEC) in January 2011 at QR3.2bn. The forthcoming port will be linked with all the major forms of transportation.

“The world class port will be well connected to the New Doha International Airport through rail and road networks to carry out the export and import of goods as easily and smoothly as possible,” said Nabeel Mohammed Al Buenain, Project Executive Director.

Initially, the first phase of the project was scheduled to be completed by 2014 but due to some additional plans the time has been extended by a couple of years to 2016. “It is not a delay. The deadline has been re-fixed as now we have a more comprehensive project that was planned before. Now we will have a dedicated navy force vessel area for the Amiri as well as a canal in the project which will be connecting the port to the Economic Zone-3,” added Al Buenain.

BY MOHAMMED SHOEB (ThePeninsulaQatar)