The Enfidha deep-water port project has been delayed by around 11 years and a public company, the Port of Enfidha Company, has been set up to complete, develop and maintain the port and adjacent logistics zone, coordinate the various related transport infrastructure projects and carry out preparatory and development studies and plans.
Once completed, the port is expected to handle approximately 4.8 million 20-foot containers and generate 52,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The port of Enfidha will meet international quality, safety and environmental standards. It will also connect Tunisia to the main east-west transport hubs, reducing transit times to as little as 10 days while cutting costs by 15% and attracting some of the container transshipment traffic in the central and western Mediterranean.
The port is expected to be completed in two phases by 2030, the first three years after the start of work in 2023 and the remainder in five years.
The components of the project are divided into several phases, the first of which will begin with the development of the port area, covering 1,000 hectares, followed by the development of the economic and logistics services zone, covering 2,000 hectares, with 1,200 meters of quays initially, and the remaining 800 meters to be completed in a second phase.
On the other hand, the dry bulk terminal will be completed at an accelerated pace, opposite the container terminal, with 560 meters of quays over an area of 35 hectares and a capacity of around 4 million tons.
It is also expected that “the total cost of the first phase of the project will be $1040 million, with 75% of the funding coming from the public sector and 25% from the private sector.
Tunisia still looking for a serious strategic partner
Sarra Zaafrani Zenzeri, Minister of Public Works and Housing, who is also acting Minister of Transport, has confirmed that Tunisia has decided to seek a serious strategic partner for the construction of the Enfidha deep-water port, as part of an agreement that respects the sovereignty of the state.
In response to a question by MP Mohamed Ahmed at a hearing held at the Assembly of People’s Representatives on Wednesday, Zenzeri said that the current approach to implementing the Enfidha deep-water project is based on finding a serious strategic partner that does not require any sovereignty or other real guarantees, while making it clear that the sovereignty of the state will not be violated.
She said: ‘We will find a solution as soon as possible and the Enfidha deep-water project must go ahead, especially as it is of strategic importance for Tunisia.
She added that this project and the associated logistics zone will be the first smart port in Tunisia to meet international standards. It will help strengthen Tunisia’s other ports by connecting the country to the world’s main maritime routes,” she added.
The minister also reviewed the stages of the project’s development over the past few years, including the creation of the Port of Enfidha company in 2018 and the state guarantee it received to enter into partnership with the private sector.
In fact, the Enfidha deep-water port project has become a vital necessity for Tunisia’s image abroad, particularly in the Mediterranean, especially in the light of the changes the world is undergoing in terms of power relations.
Despite the vicissitudes that have affected the project due to the political and social instability that the country has experienced since 2011, experts consider it to be a model project, immense and unique in the region, as it will be Tunisia’s locomotive between the western and eastern Mediterranean.
It should be noted that the call for tenders for the execution of the first phase of the port was published on February 24, 2020, so that tenders can be submitted from July 2021.
