It is not just difficult to believe but also impossible to imagine that a city can be developed on the border of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where you can find merely desert. What’s more, temperature at that location can go above 50 degree Celsius as well. The surprising fact is that this city will welcome the sea with its special gates for the purpose and the sea will flow six miles inside the city.
This is not an imaginary description; there are some other mind blowing facts also about Sabah Al Ahmed Sea City, which is being built on the border of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and it will be equivalent to the size of Manhattan.
The oil prices are going down globally but there still a lot remains in Kuwait for spending and the leaders are also getting futuristic as they are sure that one day oil will be finished so the country should have other sources of income too. This new city got its name from an emir of Kuwait, Sabah Al Ahmad (86) who tasted power in the year 2006.
Not only this Sea City, the emir is also focusing on Madinat al-Hareer, or Silk City, which is even bigger project and it is set to be built on Bubiyan island, which is near to the border of Iraq.
However, this project can’t be made reality until a huge causeway is constructed across the Kuwait bay, the work is under progress but it will still take years to complete. However, if we talk about the Sea City, the infrastructure is already built and the project may finish in coming years.
The inspiration for the project came from a rich real estate developer of Kuwait, late Khalid Yousef Al Marzouq who financed the complete project through his firm La’ala company and now his son Fawaz Al Marzouq is working to make this project a reality.
The project manager of La’ala who is working on this project, Ian Williams, has refused to tell the total cost but he accepted that it is a multibillion dollar project. Fawaz Al Marzouq told, “The project was conceived in the mid-1980s but did not start on site until 2003.”
The reason for the delay was Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 who was eventually defeated but after it, Kuwait needed some time to recover. In 2003, the work started on this project which included bringing six miles of sea inside from the Persian Gulf which has resulted in the creation of 200 km (124 miles) of beaches, marine habitat and tidal shoreline.
Before the work started, it was Sabkha which is a barren salt marsh; it was then cleared before being dug and compacted. Nearly 2500 workers who belong to different 20 countries are working on this project and the highest number of workers belong to India.
Ian told, “In the heat of the summer (June-October) work is stopped between 11am to 4pm. While temperatures may reach over 50C, workers are not exposed to extremely harsh conditions.”
He further talked about those who will live in the city, “The oil refining, other oil-related industries and heavy industrial facilities are to the south of Kuwait City. With the traffic congestion in the city people will be attracted to make Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City their primary residence. There is clear evidence of this happening already.”
The project, which is ecologically sustainable, is being developed in 10 phases and it will take at least more than 25 years, so there is still a lot of time before we see the Sea City completely build.