KUWAIT is likely to start work on its much-delayed $20-billion metro project soon, reports said.

The project will be built on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, the Emirates 24/7 website reported, adding that the first phase of the metro is expected to be completed by 2017.

Six government departments located in the planned metro’s path have agreed to shift to other locations while the remaining institution – the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research – has been asked to move so construction work can start, the reports said quoting “senior ministerial sources”.

The reports added that Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah had asked those departments to co-operate with the government to “enable it to lay the foundation stone for the metro”.

Asked about the starting date of the project, the sources said it would be “very soon”.

The five-phase project, a joint public-private sector venture, will span more than 160 km and will be serviced by 69 stations.

Work on the project was to have started in 2013 but it has been delayed because of technical and other reasons.