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Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani has inaugurated the first 63-kilometre corridor of the Development Road mega project, connecting the Al-Faw Grand Port to the international Safwan Highway in Basra Province.
The Development Road, which will stretch 1,200 km from the Al-Faw port on the Gulf to Iraq’s border with Turkey, is designed to include a railway line, a parallel roadway and industrial cities, and is estimated to cost between $17 billion and $20 billion
The newly opened section stretches from the entrance of Al-Faw Grand Port to the Khor Al-Zubair Channel, crossing the immersed tunnel toward Umm Qasr, before linking with the international highway. The corridor includes two major bridges, one measuring 800 metres and the other 400 metres, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s office last week.
During the visit, Al-Sudani also inspected the three core components of the Al-Faw Grand Port project: the navigation channel, container handling yard and five main berths.
The navigation channel, within Khor Abdullah, has reached 100 percent completion, with a final depth of 19.8-metres, extending 23-km in length and 200 metres in width.
The container handling yard is 96.5 percent complete, spanning 2,000 metres in length and 600 metres in width, and is designed to handle up to 3 million containers annually.
The five berths, which are now fully complete, have a combined length of 1,750 metres, the statement noted
The Development Road and Al-Faw Grand Port are central to the OPEC member’s strategy to transform the country into a regional trade and transit hub, linking Asia with Europe through integrated port, road and rail infrastructure.
(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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