DOHA: The New Doha Port being built in Mesaieed has been named Hamad Port.
It will serve as the main gateway for Qatar’s trade with the world and will be partially opened before the year-end.
Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday renamed the port and immersed its basin in water at the project site in Umm Al Houl in Mesaieed.
The partial opening of the port includes loading and unloading stations to allow import of vehicles and construction equipment.
The 4km-long, 700-metre wide and 17-metre deep facility can accommodate the biggest vessels in the world. It will be equipped with 12 cranes from the roof to the quay, rubber gantry cranes for containers and mobile cranes, forklifts, tugboats, guidance boats and docking boats.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Transport and Chairman of Hamad Port Steering Committee H E Jassim bin Seif Ahmed Al Sulaiti said the first phase of the project, which will help increase its capacity, will be fully operational in late 2016. He said immersion of the port’s basin in water is one of the most important phases of the project.
Abdulla Al Khanji, CEO, Qatar Ports Management, said once fully operational, Hamad Port’s capacity will be six million containers a year. It will be connected with GCC countries through road, sea and rail networks.
The port will be able to handle 1.7 million tonnes of general goods, one million tonnes of foodgrains and 500,000 vehicles. Work on the project began in 2010.
The minister said Qatar had allocated over $140bn for the development of infrastructure and transportation projects over the next five years as part of a programme to achieve Qatar National Vision 2030 objectives and further prosperity and sustainable development.The Peninsula
