Kuwait to tender Metro in 5-year plan

Kuwait will tender the much-delayed USD multi-billion metro rail project in its next five-year development plan, according to the Gulf emirate’s minister of state for development and planning.

Hind Al Sabeeh said other major projects to be included in the 2014-2018 plan involve Mubarak port, the media city the privatisation of schools, university and cooperatives.

“The next development plan includes the tendering of large projects in Kuwait such as the Metro and rail projects,” she told the Saudi satellite TV new channel Al Arabiya on Sunday night. Her comments were published by Kuwaiti newspapers.

She said the government is preparing to launch the new development plan after the end of the first development blueprint at the end of the 2014 fiscal year on March 31.

She added that the new plan involves a number of solutions that will tackle “imbalances” in the previous plan, including a delay in the execution of some major projects.

The Kuwaiti daily Al Anba said the new plan would focus on the private sector and encouraging foreign capital, adding that  the first plan involved investment of around KD30 billion (USD108 billion) by the public and private sectors.

Officials have earlier said the 171-km metro project would cost nearly USD7 billion and would be part of a USD25-billion rail network linking Kuwait with its five partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council—Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE. The Metro project had been due to be launched in 2013 but was delayed for internal reasons.

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