A CONSORTIUM led by Hyundai Engineering & Construction has entered the lowest bid for the Kuwait Causeway – a 25-km fixed link built across the Bay of Kuwait from Kuwait city to Subiya.

The consortium reportedly put in a bid of $2.6 billion for the road link, beating a $2.85 billion bid from Saudi Arabia’s Binladin Group. The causeway will be named after Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah, who was Emir of Kuwait from 1977 until his death in 2006.

The scheme is part of the wider ‘City of Silk’ project, a 250-sq-km urban redevelopment scheme centred on Subiya. The scheme was approved by the government in 2008, and it has a projected cost of some $95 billion and a 25-year development programme.

Key parts of the project will include a new airport, a business park, a 2-sq-km wildlife reserve and various education, health and industrial institutions.

The centrepiece will be the Mubarak Al Khabir Tower, designed by UK architect Eric Kuhne and Associates, which is to top-out at a height of 1,001 m in 2016.