$25 billion bridge to link Middle East and Africa

Robert Hamilton
For Al-Shorfa.com
2008-08-05

A Japanese tanker cruises the Red Sea. (Getty Images)

Developers have unveiled detailed plans to build the world’s longest suspension bridge at a cost of $25 billion [USD]. Dubbed “Bridge of the Century,” the project will cross the Red Sea at a 29 km wide strait known as the Bab al-Mandep, and connect the southern tip of Yemen with the Horn of Africa in Djibouti.

The entire scheme, which also entails the creation of special economic cities at each end of the crossing, will require a total investment of over $200 billion in the two impoverished nations, and link Asia and Africa.

The ‘Al Noor’ project is the vision of Sheikh Tarek Mohammed bin Laden, half-brother of the world’s most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden. Sheikh Tarek has said that the project could create as many as 500,000 construction jobs over its 15-year construction period. That work could begin as early as next year.

His Dubai-based firm, Middle East Development Company LLC, has been the main driver behind the scheme, which includes the building of the first of 100 proposed Al Noor cities across the world.

"It is a new city and it is happening,” Al Noor Holding Investment CEO Mohammed Ahmed Al Ahmed, told investors and reporters at the launch in Djibouti on July 28. “Africa is the centre of the world with a population of almost one billion, while the Middle East and North Africa region has a population of 400 million. We have all the ingredients to make this project a reality."

Master plans outline a two mile viaduct from the Yemeni coast to the island of Perim, where it passes for another 2 miles before a final 13-mile stretch to Ras Siyyan in Djibouti. The crossing will have as its centrepiece an 8-mile suspension bridge towering above the sea, which is about 1,000 feet deep at its lowest point.

With the aid of a six-lane motorway and a four-track railway, up to 100,000 cars and 50,000 train passengers a day will be able to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, which acts as a strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. In 2006, an estimated 3.3 million barrels of oil passed through the strait per day, and with this in mind the bridge’s centre span will be big enough to let oil tankers pass underneath.

And yet the ‘Bridge of the Horns’ is just one element of the Al Noor City project, with huge free zones and expanded ports planned for either side of the crossing.

"The next booming emerging market opportunities exist in the Middle East and Africa, and Al Noor cities will be the leading edge in supporting economic growth in these markets,” Al Ahmed continued. “Economic development based on the principles of innovation, sustainability and global competitiveness will form a platform to investment and GDP growth. The inbound direct investment is forecast to produce an indirect multiplier effect of no less than five times the size of investment for each country."

On the Yemeni coast, at 931.5 sq miles, Madinat al Noor (‘City of Light’) will be six times larger than Paris. On the Djibouti shoreline, over two million people will live in their own 621 sq miles metropolis.

Over the next six years, the project proposes an investment of $31 billion in Yemen and $20 billion in Djibouti, some by Al Noor, some by private investors. In 15 years’ time, should all go to plan, $200 billion will have been invested in the development - $105 billion in Yemen, $70 billion in Djibouti and $25 billion on the bridge linking the two.

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