Iraq will soon award a contract to a consultancy firm for the design of a new express rail network that will connect central areas with Baghdad, an adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani said on Thursday.

The rail will link in its first phase Samarra, Karbala and Najaf and will stretch in the stage two to the capital Baghdad, Nassir Al-Assadi said.

Assadi, an adviser for transport, told the official news agency INA that the train will have a speed of 240 km/hour and a capacity to transport nearly one million passengers per day.

“The project will be launched just after the design and management contract is awarded to a consultancy company,” Assadi said.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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