Rails across the Red Sea

[John Ashworth]

Bin Laden's biblical bridge
Article By: Emmanuel Goujon
Last Updated: 12:20pm 24 Apr 2008

Moses once parted the Red Sea ... now Osama bin Laden's half-brother is planning to build a bridge over it.

Building on engineering feats such as the Channel Tunnel between England and France, the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Suez Canal joining the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, the proposed bridge would link Yemen to Djibouti, creating a man-made link between the Middle East and Africa.

Costing €14-billion ($22-billion), stretching around 28.5 kilometres and encompassing a six-lane motorway and a four-track railway, the bridge would be of Biblical proportions.

And the man behind it bears a familiar name, too — Tarek bin Laden, half-brother of the leader of al-Qaeda.

Tarek, a Saudi construction magnate, has been lobbying the Yemen and Djibouti governments to back the project, which would create a direct link between Arabia and east Africa, without the need to travel by the Sinai peninsula.

Djibouti Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita said his government was not actively involved.

"The project fell on us from the sky with the proposal by Osama bin Laden's (half) brother, who has a construction company in Saudi Arabia," Dileita told AFP.

Talk of the town

"People are talking about it a lot here — the Yemenis are convinced the project will be carried out with Saudi and Emirates' funds to connect the Arab world to Africa."

The plan envisages building new cities at either end of the bridge — which would itself in fact be a combination of bridges, with a stop-off point in the centre of the "Bab ed Mandeb" (Gates of Hell) straights at Perim Island.

"Numerous American, Yemeni and even French businesses are taking part in the project," the prime minister said.

"But the big advantage will be to take millions of African Muslims to Mecca, by train or by bus."

Indeed, on top of the commercial and logistic aspects, one of the key attractions of the bridge is spiritual — serving as an easier crossing for millions of African Muslims who make the pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, each year.

City of Light

One of the new cities at either end of the bridge would be called the City of Light (Medinet an Noor) and at 600km² would be six times the land-mass of Paris and serve as a trade, commercial and tourist hub for anticipated traffic.

"We don't yet know if it will be in the north of Djibouti or in Yemen," said Deleita.

The bridge would in total measure around 28.5 kilometres, including a 3.5 kilometre link to the island and a final 13 kilometre crossing to Africa — the longest suspension bridge in the world.

That, the developers say, could create 100 000 construction jobs over the 10 year build time.

There are, however, major obstacles in the way, both man-made and natural.

A shifty landscape

The bridge will cross a site known for intense seismic activity. In 1978 massive tectonic plate movement triggered an eruption from Djibouti's Ardoukoba volcano and an earthquake measuring between three and 5.3 on the Richter scale.

The lava flows radically altered the seabed.

Yet the ministry which looks after Djibouti's environment says it is confident the project design can plan for such acts of nature.

Such tectonic plate shifts are "not something that happens suddenly, but are generally predictable, so the key is for architects to come up with plans which take into account these movements," said Aboubakar Douale Waiss, the general secretary of the ministry for the environment, towns and urban planning.

Another potential dilemma is the fate of Djibouti's port, which currently handles more than 120 000 vehicles a year, mostly on business to and from Ethiopia. A road bridge would seriously dent that trade.

But Waiss insisted the increased economic and political stability of Djibouti will be enough to support both bridge and port.

"The bridge and the port are complementary," he said. "There are huge populations in the areas behind Djibouti — 80 million in Ethiopia alone — and the traffic will just continue to grow."

Finally, as the United States and France have substantial military bases in Djibouti, there are fears the new link will prove a tempting terrorist target, or simply provide easier access to some of the impoverished states in the Horn of Africa for Islamic extremists.

iafrica.com

[John Ashworth]

RED SEA BRIDGE
Railways Africa
Friday, 26 September 2008

Within the next twenty years, Dubai-based Al Noor Holding Investment Company hopes to build a bridge across the Red Sea linking Africa with the Arabian Peninsula. Spanning 29km between Djibouti and Yemen, it would rate as the largest suspension structure in the world, running between two envisaged new cities, both named Al Noor City, or City of Light. The bridge would carry a six-lane highway, as well as a natural gas pipeline and a railway for both passenger and freight. As many as 20,000 rail passengers per day are foreseen. The estimated cost is in the region of $US200 billion.

The man behind the scheme bears a familiar name: Tarek bin Laden. He is half-brother to the notorious Osama. Guests attending the project’s recent launch at a Djibouti hotel watched a video presentation in the main ballroom.

Afterwards, engineers, financiers and project management concerns held discussions, the main objective at this stage being to interest potential investors in the scheme. Bin Laden’s Al Noor Holding has already pledged an initial $1 billion.

An important reason for building the bridge, Bin Laden says, is to provide easier journeys for African Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Another factor is the shortage of arable land in the desert soil of the Arabian Peninsula.