By Godfrey Bivbere
Construction of the Port at Lekki which is expected to accommodate container vessels up to 8,000 Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs) and liquid bulk vessels up to 160,000 DWT will begin in first quarter of the year 2011 as the contractor selection process is currently underway.

Several potentials EPC Contractors have been selected by the Lekki Port from over 30 contractors who expressed interest in bidding for construction of the port.

The short listed contractors, from various parts of the globe, are renowned for their expertise in the field and have been issued an ‘Invitation to Bid’ (ITB). Louis Berger Group Inc (USA), the Project Management Consultants (PMC) for this multi-billion dollar private deep sea port project is supervising the entire process.

According to the Director of Finance, Lekki Port, , Mr. Kundan Sainani, “the visit to the site by the contractors is the next step after the short listing process. This will give the contractors an opportunity to see the site location, site conditions and get a real understanding of the project which in turn will help them in preparing their technical and financial proposals.”

Mr. Sainani further explained that, “the visit to the site by the contractors lasted for two weeks with each contractor’s team assigned a day to visit the site. A typical day began with a presentation about the project followed by a visit to the Lekki port site and concluded with a question and answer session.”

The Lekki Port when fully developed will cover an area of 500 hectares and will be the first deep sea port in Nigeria. It will also have the capability of handling all types of cargo including containers, liquid bulk and dry bulk.

The contractors are expected to submit their bids by Sept, 2010. The contract will be awarded the by the end of 2010 and contractors mobilized in the first quarter of 2011.

Established in 2002, the Lagos Free Trade Zone is a private sector initiation promoted by Eiurochem Corpoation of Singapore and is located in Itoke Village, Ibeju- Lekki area, along the Atlantic coast 65km east of Lagos. LFTZ was conceived and developed to facilitate foreign and local investments in Nigeria.

When fully developed, the zone will house a number of world class petroleum, petrochemical and agro-commodity manufacturing complexes by drawing upon Nigeria’s abundant oil and gas resources.