By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 27 December 2013:
The first stone of the new complex for the National Oil Corporation (NOC) has been laid . . .[restrict]today in Benghazi’s Giuliana district, next to the downtown area of the city.
“Laying the first stone of the new NOC headquarter in Benghazi is an important step in the construction of the city economically,” Benghazi Local Council leader Mahmoud Buraziza told the Libya Herald. “The project is one of a number of the projects [in and around Benghazi] that are going to be built.”
These, he said, included the 300-hectare industrial zone in Sellouk, the foundation stone of which was laid yesterday by Industry Minister Sulaiman Fituri, and the largest entertainment project in North Africa, the People’s Park Mall. There was also the opening of the infertility centre in Gwarsha district, and the Manara Museum, Buraziza added.
The head of the engineering team for the new NOC complex construction, Yousef Al-Hadi, told this newspaper that it would be built on a area of 5.8 hectares, at an estimated cost of LD 350-400 million.
Providing there was agreement on the budget, Al-Hadi said, the project could be finished during by 2015 at the latest.
He added that the new complex would include a branch of the Ministry of Oil, a branch of Brega Marketing Company, an investment centre to follow up work with foreign and local companies, a conference and meeting centre, a health centre, a 5-star hotel, and guest accommodation.
The company that is to build the project would be chosen next week from the 12 firms that had been selected in the pre-qualification process, he said. A total of 48 companies, foreign and local, had applied to pre-qualify.
Today’s ceremony was attended by the Higher Education Minister Mohamed Hassan Abu-Bakr, Health Minister Nureddin Dughman, Culture Minister Habib Al-Amin and Justice Minister of Salah Marghani as well as local council members and a representatives of civil society organisations. [/restrict]
