Iraq’s Ministry of Transport announced the completion of a rehabilitation project for industrial ports in Basra funded by Japanese soft loans.

The projects involved expansion of an oil products berth at Khor Al-Zubair Port and building new service berths for working ships and service boats at Umm Qasr Port, the Ministry’s media office told Zawya Projects.

The ministry said the project was executed by a partnership between Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and Turkey-based contractors Calik Enerji (CE) Gap Insaat.

The media office statement said the berth at Khor Al-Zubair has a length of 340 metres and width of 20 metres. Of the two berths in Umm Qasr, one has a length of 250 metres and width of 30 meters while the second is 300 meters long.

The three berths are in the process of being handed over to their owner, the General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI), the statement noted.

In May 2018, Mitsubishi Corporation had said in a statement that the port rehabilitation project is valued at approximately $110 million and is funded through Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) loans provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Source: Reuters (Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)