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Iraq will pursue a project to complete the construction of its largest residential city although it was abandoned by South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering and Construction Company, the local press reported on Tuesday.
Al-Forat News and other local publications quoted a statement by Hanwha, which won the deal in 2012, as saying it has decided to abandon the $10-billion project because of payment delays by the Iraqi government.
But Iraq’s National Investment Commission (NIC) insisted that it had paid all dues to the contractor and accused the Company of failing to execute the project.
In a second statement in two days, NIC said Hanwha has delivered only 20,400 units of the 100,000 houses stipulated in the contract and that 9,000 of them were incomplete.
“In line with the Bismaya contract, the South Korean Company has committed to deliver 10,500 houses within two years after the contract was signed in 2012 but it only delivered 1,440 units in 2014,” NIC said.
“It has also agreed to deliver 22,500 units every year after 2014…but the Company delivered only 20,400 units, of which 9,000 were incomplete…NIC assures all those who have registered to receive houses that it will do its best to push ahead with the project to build all the units.”
Bismaya City, nearly 10 km southeast of the capital Baghdad, has an area of around 18 sq km and will accommodate nearly 600,000 people.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
