Around $266.6m (SR: 1bn) is set to be spent on an upgrade to Jeddah Islamic Port to allow it to handle more traffic.
According to Arab News, the port currently handles over 65% of all cargo entering into the Kingdom and last year saw its cargo handling rate increase by 20% to 62m tonnes.
Therefore, the port’s general director Caotain Sahir Tahwali said that the proposed extension wil “upgrade the operational capacity of the port, so that it can better deal with the growth in commercial traffic”.
The work will involve the expansion of Route 8 – one of the major routes used by around 5,000 trucks entering the port every day. A new multistorey car park incorporating over 17,000 cars, a new admin building and the iupgrade of the power’s port network will all be included in the upgrade, he added.
Nashwa Tahir, chairwoman of the trade commission at Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the work was needed.
“Some goods take too long to reach local markets, some of which are quite far from Jeddah,” she said.
