Industrial zone planned in Baalbek

$10 million project still
in feasibility study stage

The Municipality of Baalbek will establish an industrial zone in Baalbek, near the Homs-Baalbek international highway.

The Ministry of Industry (MoI) will finance a feasibility study for the project, which will cost $150,000. The municipality will offer the 500,000 square meter land plot. About 120,000 m2 of the plot will include a facility for sorting waste, as well as a landfill. The land will be partitioned into small 1,200-5,000 m2 lots.

Investment in the zone is estimated at $10 million, according to Saad Arafat, an engineer at the Municipality of Baalbek. He said that the funds are not available yet.
The zone will be equipped with five power stations with high voltage capacity, water resources, a sewage system, water channels, support walls, and asphalted roads.

Arafat said: “The objective is to cluster small industrial facilities spread around Baalbek and its entrances, especially those noisy industries such as car repair garages, carpentry, and metal fabrications.”

The level of emitted pollution will define the location of each tenant. Those with the highest rates of pollution, like the heavy industries will be located in the center of the city and the ones with lower pollution levels will be established at the peripheries.

The zone requires two years to be completed. Arafat said prices for plots will be set later, but industrialists may rent or purchase land, as long as they intend to build factories.

The land adjacent to the industrial zone will be classified as industrial as well.