Iraq has opened bids for the 90-kilometre Najaf-Karbala railway public-private partnership (PPP) project, a National Investment Commission (NIC) statement issued on Tuesday said.

The bid opening ceremony, led by NIC’s Chairman Haider Mohammed Makkiya, was attended by Nasser Al-Asadi, the Iraqi Prime Minister’s advisor for transportation affairs, Mohammed Ali Al-Obaidi, a consultant in the Prime Minister’s Office, and representatives of the project’s main consultant, the Malaysian-Emirati consortium of ConsultantHSS (CHSS) and HSS Engineers Berhad (HEB) as well as representatives of Baghdad Municipality and the General Company for Iraqi Railways (GCIR).

Bidders attending the ceremony included Spanish company IMATHIA Construcción, Iran’s Milad Group and Qatar’s Urbacon.

The project will be developed under a design, build, operate, maintain, finance, and transfer (DBOMFT) model, the NIC statement said.

It said the Najaf – Karbala railway will connect Najaf airport, Karbala airport and the Baghdad garage in Karbala city via an elevated high-speed railway system operating at a speed of 240 km/h. 

Read more: Iraq starts bidding process for Najaf-Karbala railway project

(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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