The works for construction of the new tourist port of Durrës will start at the end of March, or at the beginning of April, Prime Minister Edi Rama has said during a visit in Durrës accompanied by the head of the company Emaar Group, Mohamed El Alabbar.

According to the PM, Emaar Group is ready to start the first phase of the construction of Durrës port.

Rama also said that "the investor will engage a significant funding for the purification of sea water along the new beach during the first p?hase".

On the other hand, the head of Emaar Group presented the project to PM Rama. "For the cleaning we have two American consultants and one from Dubai who are working on the environmental aspect. The cleanup will reach the sea, as there are many things to clean up,” El Alabbar noted.

According to Emaar Group president, preparations are still ongoing, and currently work is focused on the fishing area. "The new tourist port of Durres will be the best in the Mediterranean. The fish sales center will be open to visitors,” El Alabbar added.

PM Rama said that "it will be very important to have a fish market like in Barcelona or other cities that have fishing".

As for the passengers’ terminal, El Alabbar said that "we will create infrastructure to connect it with the city and the railway".

Prime Minister Rama proposed the construction of a space for pedestrians. While El Alabbar further stated that “there will be a yacht club. The project is in progress and I hope to start it in late March or early April.

Also present during the visit, the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku said that "here we are in the part that we have liberated from all services and functions in order to make it available for the first phase".

"We have taken a decision to move all services of the port of Durres and all concessionaires in the area of ??Porto Romano, as the situation here has been aggravated. We have had problems with all the inhabitants of the area near the port but we have identified the problems we have had for environmental pollution, or even acoustic. But especially for the heavy traffic created by trucks, at the entrance and exit roads of Durrës,” Balluku underlined.

Balluku also announced that “we have entered a new phase of the new port of Durres, that of Porto Romano. We are in the phase of the detailed project, which is submitted in early April and then we start with the design conditions of all the technical specifications that will give us the opportunity to open a tender”.

Also present, Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj said that "technical negotiations have started after the decisions of the Strategic Investment Committee."

Speaking about the first phase of the project, El Alabbar said that “we are working with three consultants, an environmental consultant, an American, a Belgian and a group from Dubai. They propose a deep cleansing of the environment, but we will have to go deep into the sea because we have done research to see the quality of the soil and the pollution.” He noted that the pollution has been present for years. "It's a great project, money has to be spent, but today with the technology we have everything is possible," he added.