$3.8 billion in ongoing CDR works

Transportation accounts for
95 percent of infrastructure contracts

The Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) said that contracts that are currently being carried out or will be executed by 2015 have a total value of $3.8 billion. The majority of projects focus on basic services related to waste, drinking water, and wastewater. They are followed by basic infrastructure projects, comprising transportation (95 percent of these projects) and electricity.

The main transportation projects under preparation are the completion of the South Highway around and beyond Saida, parts of the Arab Highway and Metn Expressway, the Cedars road, and the expansion of the Nahr El-Kalb coastal road.

The main electricity projects include the restoration of the Jieh and Zouk power plants, and the construction of a new plant in Deir Ammar.

In the water sector, part of the water from the Awwali River will be redirected to supply households in administrative Beirut. Among other projects, the CDR will complete enhanced potable water networks in Zahle, Akkar, Jabal Amel, and Byblos. It will also execute the Jabaliya lake and wastewater treatment plant in the Metn.

On the socioeconomic level, touristic ports are planned in Tyr and Jounieh. The unified Lebanese University Complex in the North will also be completed.

The main projects completed in 2012 concerned the transportation sector. A number of projects were completed as part of the CDR’s Urban Transport Plan for Beirut. They included the Al-Hayek, Dora, and Antelias bridges, the National Museum intersection, and the Mar Mikhayel underpass near Galerie Semaan. Works on the Tayyouneh and Chatila roundabouts, as well as the Hazmieh-Airport road, were also completed as part of the circular highway around Beirut.

According to the latest report by the CDR, the total value of project contracts signed between 1992 and 2012 reached $11.423 billion. Most contracts were focused on the infrastructure sector.

Nabil Jisr, President of the CDR, said that financing activity did not slow down, despite the impact of the Syrian crisis on the local economy. “Several financing agreements were submitted to the Cabinet and several others are pending Parliament approval,” he said.