Bahrain Mirror: "Sabq" newspaper revealed that Saudi Arabia is studying a big tourism project to launch a maritime channel along the Saudi-Qatar border, which is being implemented by a Saudi Arabian investment consortium of 9 companies.

The project is "awaiting official approval and licensing to begin implementation which is expected to be completed in only 12 months," the newspaper explained.

The plan is based on the creation of a maritime channel starting from Salwa to Khawr Al-Udayd that will extend across Saudi Arabia's entire east coast without interruption. Considering the border with Qatar extends over 60 kilometers and is the only landmass that interrupts trade on Saudi's eastern coast, this will clear the way for plans to develop tourism in the area as it is a vital connector between all Gulf countries.

The area was chosen due to its importance, in addition to its untouched sandy nature which is free from obstacles that hinder the implementation of the plan. The area is free of mountains and other geographic obstacles to digging, and the channel will not cross residential areas such as villages and agricultural areas. The channel will also regenerate economic activity in the area.

This area is distinguished by other scheduled projects related to the oil and industrial sectors, which qualifies it to be an economic center.

The maritime channel connecting Salwa and Khawr Al-Udayd will be 200 meters wide, 15-20 meters deep, and 60 km in length. It will able to receive all types of cargo and passenger vessels that are less than 295 meters long, under 33 meters wide and less than 12 meters deep.

The initial cost of the project will be approximately SR 2.8 billion.

The project also aims to build resorts along the new coast. They will be in the form of separate units guaranteeing private beaches for each resort. Apart from these, there will be five major hotels, one of which will be in Salwa, the second in "Sikak", the third will be in Khor Al-Udayd and two in Ras Abu Qamees.

The project study comes at a time when internal tension continues in the Gulf. The tension erupted after each of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt served, on June 5, 2017, their diplomatic relations with Qatar cut off land, sea and air routes with it.

These countries accused Qatari authorities of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the region. However, Qatar denied these charges, stressing that these measures are unjustified and are based on baseless claims.

The countries boycotting Qatar set a list of 13 demands to Doha as a condition to start a dialogue on normalizing relations, but Qatar rejected that, saying that it will engage in settlement negotiations without any preconditions.

Arabic Version