PHOTO
OPEC producer Iraq is planning to launch a massive dry canal project that will link its South and North in 2023, an official was reported on Monday as saying.
The project involves the construction of 1,200-km electric rail networks as well as new motorways from the Southern Faw Port, which is under construction, through central and North Iraq towards Turkey, said Yunis Al-Kaabi, Director of the General Rail Company, an affiliate of the Iraqi Transport Ministry.
The network will then be connected to rail and road networks in Europe through Turkey with the aim of expanding trade with those countries, Kaabi told the official Iraqi news agency.
He said the cabinet has already endorsed the project, Iraq’s largest, and that an Italian company has been charged with carrying out feasibility studies.
“This company will begin preparing designs for the project after the feasibility study is officially approved…we expect to issue the first tender this year for the construction of the country’s first electric rail as part of this project,” Kaabi said.
He noted that project designs could be completed in September, after which other project tenders would be issued, adding that the project would be either presented to investors or financed through local and foreign funds and banks.
Kaabi did not name the Italian firm but officials said in 2022 that a feasibility study for the project would be prepared by the Italian engineering services company PEG.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
