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Iraq has completed 95 percent of the subsea tunnel linking the Grand Faw Port development with the Umm Qasr transport corridor, local Arabic language media outlet 964 Network reported on Sunday.
Farhan Al-Fartousi,Director General, General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI) led a public test run, during which hundreds of vehicles crossed the structure.
The tunnel descends nearly 30 metres below the seabed beneath the Khor Al-Zubair Channel, before rising toward the highway linking southern Iraq with Baghdad.
Officials described the project as a strategic logistics corridor designed to strengthen connectivity between the Grand Faw Port and the broader Development Road project extending toward the Turkey and Europe, the report said. The tunnel cuts transport distance, previously around 170 kilometres overland, to approximately 63 kilometres.
The project involved participation from more than 150 Iraqi engineers working alongside specialists from South Korea, Netherlands and Italy giving them valuable exposure to immersed tunnel construction and engineering techniques.
(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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