Kuwait has invited bids for building the first phase of a state-of-the-art container port on Bubiyan Island at a cost of around $2 billion, the emirate’s public works minister said.

About 17 international and local companies have been prequalified for the project which is expected to start operations by the end of 2008, Bader Al Humaidi said.
The first phase involves building a 34-km road linking the new port to Iraq’s Umm Qasr port, dredging works and the main infrastructure of the port at a cost of around $1 billion.
It also involves building a railway parallel to the road and a bridge that links the island to the mainland at a cost of $400 million, according to the head of the ministry’s mega projects agency, Waleed Al Thaqeb.
Companies have three months to submit their offers and the ministry will make the selection within a month after that, Thaqeb said. All contracts are expected to be signed before the end of this year.