By Seraj Essul
Tripoli, 14 May 2014:
The Sirte port shut down yesterday due to ongoing insecurity. Port general manager Mohamed Scewy, speaking . . .[restrict]to Libya Herald said, “We stopped work in the harbor due to repeated attacks on the facilities of the port and the fact that the security directorate at the terminal is not working,” adding that they had informed the Ministry of Transportation and the Sirte local council of the closure. There are currently no ships at the port. Scewy said they will keep the port shut until they get the security they have requested.
Though one of the smaller ports along Libya’s extensive coastline, the previous regime focused on developing this port in Qaddafi’s hometown, investing money in a major expansion of the port’s capacity. While the work was stop and go for many years, and has been significantly stymied since the revolution, the port has finished half of the planned nine quays. In an interview last summer with Libya Herald Scewy said the port expansion was 85 percent complete and needed one and a half years at most to complete.
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