Kuwaiti set to launch Metro project

Kuwait has cleared most obstacles delaying its USD multi-billion metro project and it will be launched soon, a newspaper in the oil-rich Gulf emirate said on Wednesday.

The Arabic language daily Al Anba, quoting “senior ministerial” sources, said six government departments located in the planned metro path had agreed to shift to other locations while the remaining institution — the Kuwait scientific research institute — has been asked to follow suit so construction work will begin.

It quoted the sources as saying that Kuwait’s prime minister Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah has asked those departments to “cooperate with the government to enable it to lay the foundation stone for the metro project.”

“Asked about the date of starting this giant metro project, the sources said it would be set very soon,” the report said.

The project, to be constructed on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, will cost nearly USD 20 billion and the first phase will be completed in 2017, the paper said.

The Metro project in Kuwait, a key OPEC oil producer, had been due to be launched in 2013 but was delayed for technical and other reasons, according to officials.

A joint public-private sector venture, the five-phase project will span more than 160 km and will be serviced by 69 stations.

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