The Transport Ministers of Iraq, Qatar, UAE and Turkey will meet in Baghdad on Thursday to push for a mega rail project that could turn Iraq into a major transit hub.

Designs for the 1,200-km rail line, which could cost nearly $17 billion, have been finished while those for a parallel motorway are expected to be completed soon, according to Iraq’s Transport Ministry spokesman Maytham Safi.

Safi told the official news agency on Tuesday that the meeting of the Ministers, who make up the project’s Ministerial Committee, is “important” as it will focus on “organizational and administrative operations” of the project.

“It will be an opportunity for the Ministers to get acquainted with the latest developments in this strategic project and to push ahead with it,” he said.

The UAE, Qatar and Turkey have agreed to subscribe to funding of the “Development Road, which will stretch from Faw Port, under construction in South Iraq, to its Northern border with Turkey, providing Iraq with a transit route to Europe.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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