Iraq will on Saturday kick off a long-awaited project to build a rail line to link its border with nearby Iran, an Iraqi news network said on Wednesday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani will lay the foundation stone for the project which involves the construction of a 36-km railway line, Shafaq News said.

The rail will link the Southern Iraqi Basra Governorate with the Iranian border down of Shalamcheh and will have a capacity to transport three million passengers per year.

Officials said in early August that Iraq has allocated 215 billion Iraqi dinars ($148 million) for its part of the project.

Hazim Naji, an advisor to Sudani, said during a visit to Tehran three weeks ago that all obstacles have been cleared for the project and that the two sides were engaged in a mine-clearing operation before work is launched.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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