Portuguese group Mota-Engil, which is co-owned by China Communications Construction Company, has broken ground on the construction of Mindelo Cruise Terminal in Cabo Verde island of São Vicente.
The Prime Minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, presided last week over the official launch of the construction work of the Mindelo Cruise Terminal, a
The project, costing around 27 million euros, is one of the largest public investments in Cabo Verde and should be finished in two years.
Mindelo which is co-financed by the Orio Fund, from the Netherlands, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Fund for International Development, includes the construction of a 400-metre long pier with a depth 11 metres to the north and nine metres to the south, and a 900-square-metre passenger terminal.
The project will include the construction of a 2,700-square-metre embankment, called “Ponte Terrestre”, the dredging of approximately 124 thousand cubic metres in the port basin and in the access channel, and the rehabilitation of pier number 9, which will serve small pleasure boats.
The strategic planning and concept of the Special Maritime Economic Zone of São Vicente were developed by an ad hoc’ commission, which was in charge of the project until the end of last year, and whose current board of directors will be responsible for future development.
The Mota-Engil – Engenharia e Construção, SA (Portugal) and Empreitel Figueiredo, SA (Cabo Verde), consortium will be in charge of the construction.
The chairman of the board of directors of Enapor – Portos de Cabo Verde, Alcídio Lopes, said that, with this project, São Vicente will have an “innovative, modern” cruise terminal and “with very advanced technical characteristics”.
Lopes recalled that before the pandemic, 48,500 cruise tourists visited Cabo Verde, in 2019, an increase of 3 per cent compared to 2018, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, cruise tourism had come to a standstill, CLBrief reported.
