Iraq has approved plans to build a second runway at a civilian airport under construction in the Southern Nasiriya city, according to an official statement. 

The cabinet has already allocated nearly $367 million from the 2021 budget to the airport project which will initially have a capacity for handling 750,000 passengers. 

“This project comprises the main terminal and other buildings and facilities...there will also be a second runway at a later stage,” the Planning Ministry said in a statement published by the Iraqi Al-Iqtisad News. 

According to the statement, work on the project has already started but that “it has been slow and is not compatible with the plans.” 

Iraq said in June it has awarded the contract to build the port on a former military base to the China's CSEC.

It is not clear if the contract was awarded as part of a landmark oil-for-projects agreement signed between Baghdad and Beijing in 2019 allowing Chinese firms to execute projects in Iraq in exchange for crude oil. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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