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Kuwait’s Council of Ministers General Secretariat (CMGS) is expected to award the license for developing four sites on the 36-kilometre Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway, which spans the Kuwait Bay linking Kuwait City with Subiya, on public-private partnership (PPP) model in the third quarter of 2022.
“The tender for license for the planning, planning, development, completion, operation, maintenance, utilisation and investment of the four sites, comprising North and South islands and North and South Banks was issued on 26 September 2021. The bid submission deadline has been pushed from 17 March to 16 June 2022,” a source aware of the project details told Zawya Projects.
He said the license award is expected by end of third quarter of 2022.
The successful company will undertake the design, financing, execution of the infrastructure and the facilities across the four sites totalling approximately one million square metres (sqm), followed by operation and management period of 35 years.
The areas available for development in each site, according to a November 2021 report by state news agency KUNA, is as follows:
- 635,913 sqm of the Southern bank
- 282,355 sqm of Southern Island
- 283,358 sqm of Northern Island
- 565,504 sqm of Northern Bank
The commercial prospects include retail, hospitality, health, wellness, food and beverage, and serviced apartments, with the objective of transforming the areas into local and regional attraction with entertainment, social, cultural and sports venues,
The bidder, local and foreign, will need to demonstrate its experience in developing, managing or operating mixed-use real estate developments and the completion of at least one similar comparable development not less than 50,000 sqm during the last seven years.
The project is slated for completion by end of 2026.
(Reporting by Senthil Palanisamy; Editing by Anoop Menon)
