Saudi Authority inks $1 million deal to revamp Kuwait’s Saffarin market

• The contract to revamp Kuwait’s Saffarin market covers study, design, tender preparation, and project supervision, with a 14-month design phase and 18-month implementation oversight.

The Saudi Authority for Industry has signed a contract worth 331,244 Kuwaiti dinars (approximately one million US dollars) for the rehabilitation, development, and maintenance of the Saffarin market in Al-Mirqab area(formerly Sharq) with an engineering consulting firm, according to Al Rai newspaper.

The authority said in a statement to the Kuwait News Agency on Monday that this initiative aligns with the directives of Khalifa Al-Ajeel, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Industry Authority Council, to preserve the market’s architectural character as a historical legacy in the country.

The authority explained that the contract includes the study, design, preparation of tender documents, and supervision of the project’s implementation, with a timeline of fourteen months for study and design work and eighteen months for overseeing the implementation. The contract will involve studying, documenting, designing, and rehabilitating the market.

It also highlighted that the Saffarin market, established in 1961, is one of the most important and oldest traditional markets in central Kuwait City. Covering an area of 9,182 square meters, the market consists of eight buildings, each housing approximately twenty shops, totaling 156 shops. These shops specialize in light metalwork and metal formation, with sizes ranging between 15 and 18 square meters.