The Basra Provincial Council is planning to move ahead with the Grand al-Faw port project in southern Iraq as a public-private partnership (PPP) project.

The target completion date for the project has, accordingly, been moved to 2038, according to Ali Fares, chairman of the Oil and Gas Committee of the Basra Provincial Council.

The new timeline is 10 years longer than originally planned, with total cost for the port development estimated to be between $4.6bn and 6bn.

The port is envisaged to have an annual capacity of up to 99 million tonnes and will handle between 5,000 and 6,000 vessels annually. A planned double-track railway will also connect the port with the existing transport network in the country.

Like most new ports planned or under construction across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, the plan is for the Grand al-Faw port to feature additional facilities including housing complexes, power stations, industrial and investment zones, logistics centres and potentially a manufacturing zone.

It is understood that Iraq’s Transport Ministry, which controls the country’s ports, has received several investment proposals for the port development, although the names of these companies have not yet been disclosed.

The ministry began prequalifying contractors for the project three years ago, but the adoption of a PPP model, first mooted earlier this year, could mean a new procurement or prequalification process will be launched.

Two separate projects to build the eastern and western breakwater at the port are under way. The $264m eastern breakwater project is now nearing completion. It was awarded in September 2012 to a consortium comprising Greece’s Archirodon, China Communications Construction Group, South Korea’s Daewoo E&C, Hyundai E&C and Jeongshin Construction, Belgium’s Dredging International and UAE/Autralia’s Habtoor Leighton.

The larger western breakwater contract, valued at $695m, is halfway through the construction stage, according to regional projects tracker MEED Projects. Contractors working on the western breakwater contract include Archirodon, Daewoo E&C and Hyundai E&C, in addition to Netherlands-based dredging firms Van Oord and Royal Boskalis.

The eastern breakwater is due for completion by end 2015, while the western breakwater is expected to be completed by 2017. Sources close to the project, however, say that the time frame for the projects’ completion could be extended.