Iraq’s Development Road Project linking its Southern Faw Port to Turkey by rail will cost USD 17 bn to complete, IraqiNews Agency (INA) quotes the general manager of Iraq’s state-owned Iraq Republic Railways, Younus Khalid, as saying. The Development Road Project includes the construction of the railway connecting the countries, as well as a highway that will be built in parallel, with the first phase slated for completion in 2028.

The project is set to bring the country some USD 4.85 bn in revenues, with the expected volume of revenues from cargo carried amounting to USD 4 bn, while passenger-generated revenue is expected to reach some USD 850 mn per year, Khalid said.

The numbers: The cost for the railway is expected to be USD 10.5 bn, while the highway will cost some USD 6.5 bn, amounting to a total of around USD 17 bn for the whole Development Road Project, Khaled said.

The preliminary and final feasibility studies have been completed for the project, with the project now in the design stage, according to Khalid. Once the designs are complete, an invitation will be sent out to companies in the railway industry to submit bids for the construction of the project. The expected completion of the Development Road will be split into three phases, with the third phase wrapping up by 2050, Khalid told INA. The country’s Transport Ministry had earlier said that the project’s implementation phase will begin in 2024.

Background:The freight train will pass through 10 Iraqi provinces, the last of which is Nineveh, which will connect to Turkey. Some 60 km of rail between the ports of Faw and Umm Qasr have been built, according to Al Safi. The train will have an initial capacity of 3.5 mn containers and will be able to carry 22 mn tons of bulk cargo per year, before expanding to 7.5 mn containers and 33 mn tons per year. The highway will span a length of 1.2k km according to the news agency.

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