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Iraq has decided to launch a multi-billion-dollar project to link its Southern Faw Port with Turkey by a rail network in early 2024, the official news agency reported on Wednesday.
An Italian company has completed a feasibility study for the rail and motorway project and submitted it to the Transport Ministry, the agency said, quoting information director at the Ministry Maytham Al-Safi.
The rail and road will pass through nine Iraqi provinces and end up at the border with Turkey, Safi said without identifying that company.
“A project is under way to link Faw Port with the nearby Umm Qasr Port…this project is part of the Development Road project that will link Southern Iraq with Turkey…we have decided to award this project and start it at the beginning of 2024,” he said.
Officials said in March that the project comprises a dual rail line for freight and passenger trains and a 1,190-km motorway for cargo trucks.
The freight train will have an initial capacity of 3.5 million containers and 22 million tonnes of bulk cargo per year, to be raised in phases to 7.5 million containers and 33 million tonnes/year. The high-speed passenger train has an initial capacity of 13.8 million passengers per year.
Read more: Iraq’s GCPI and Italy’s PEG discuss feasibility and designs for Dry Canal project
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
