Abu Dhabi Ports has today announced a major expansion plan in Khalifa Port to handle the worlds largest ships by mid 2018.
The expansion will add will add 1,000 metres of quay wall to the port and deepen its main channel and basin to 18 metres from the current 16 metres.
Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, commented: This ambitious expansion is crucial to ensuring Abu Dhabi remains a global trade and investment hub as well as supporting our local industries.
Building on recent growth at Khalifa Port, we are future proofing our operations to ensure we can continue to attract the worlds leading operators to use our world-class facilities that will see Capesize vessels, the largest in the cargo industry, come directly into an Abu Dhabi port for the very first time.
Over the past few years we have invested in building an integrated, technology enabled platform and physical infrastructure for our customers to become an enabler for key business sectors in line with the Abu Dhabi Plan and Vision 2030. Today sees us take this to the next level as a maritime centre and as the gateway to the worlds fastest growing economies, he added.
A first step in delivering this plan has been the signing of a AED 605mn contract with the National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) which will start preparatory work on dredging the channels and using this material to build up the new 1000-meter-long quay wall and the adjacent yard behind it.
The expansion is scheduled for completion in mid-2018.