The authority created to oversee the development of the Subiya promontory and the Bubiyan island developments in Kuwait still needs to be staffed before it pushes ahead with the major projects.

The Kuwaiti cabinet approved the creation of the Madinat al-Hareer (City of Silk) and Bubiyan Island Authority in 2010 to oversee development on the Subiya and Bubiyan schemes. However, the authority still requires a management structure and staff before planning work on the projects can move ahead, according to a source close to the scheme.

“The authority has been created, but is not operational yet,” says the source. “It requires a chairman to be appointed before it can begin recruiting.”

The Subiya and Bubiyan projects have been given fresh impetus following the start of construction work in November 2013 on the long-delayed Subiya Causeway scheme, which links the Subiya promontory to Kuwait City.

A new masterplan for the the northern sub-region of Kuwait, which includes the Subiya promontory, the location of the proposed Silk City and Bubiyan island, was completed by Canadian firm Malone Given Parsons, in partnership with the local Gulf Consult, in 2012, updating the previous masterplans.

Commissioned in 2011, Malone Given Parsons was given the mandate to create a new masterplan using the original Subiya urban development plan, upgraded by Gulf Consult in partnership with other firms in 2004, and the Silk City masterplan, proposed in 2006, to create a suitable new blueprint for the proposed developments, where several major residential and commercial real estate projects are planned.

In 2004, a team of US-based Parsons Brinckerhoff and HOK, UK-based Healy & Baker and the local Gulf Consult signed an agreement to upgrade the original masterplan that was completed by the local Kuwaiti Engineering Group and Beirut-based Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners) in the 1980s.

In March 2006, UK-based Eric Kuhne & Associates proposed the $77bn Madinat al-Hareer (City of Silk) development as an alternative masterplan for the Subiya promontory, which was heavily focused on the private sector funding ambitious tower real estate schemes.