Saqr Port Authority will issue tenders in the next four weeks for construction work on phase two of the $158m RAK Maritime City.

Phase two will cost between $40.8-54m (Dh150-200m) and the port authority already has the financing in place.

“The tenders will be issued for a four-lane dual carriageway, access roads, MEP works, lighting and landscaping,” says a Saqr Port Authority spokesman.

China Harbour Engineering Company is currently creating a 2.5 kilometre inward water channel that will provide direct water access to RAK Maritime City.

The channel will be nine metres deep at the entrance and seven metres along the main water body. This will help ships to travel close to the city.

Saqr Port Authority will also install generators in 2010 to supply electricity to the development. Initially, it will provide 25MW although the capacity is 50MW.

The authority also says one investor is interested in developing a three or four-star hotel to accommodate investors or business-related visitors to the development.

Phase one is valued at $103m and comprises a five-kilometre long quay wall, which is complete.

Marine operations at the development will start at the end of January 2010.

Germany’s Knauf will also start production in RAK Maritime City in mid-2010. Production will include bringing gypsum by barge from Iran, where it will be processed into gypsum board and exported to construction sites across the UAE and Middle East.

RAK Maritime City was originally known as Hulayla Industrial Park.

It is about 15 kilometres north of Ras Al-Khaimah city, near the biggest bulk harbour in the region, Saqr Port.