Iraq has decided to defer the awarding of Al-Rasheed residential city project in the capital Baghdad due to the presence of defence faculties on the project site, an Iraqi official was quoted on Monday as saying. 

The National Investment Commission (NIC) decided in 2018 to award the $10-billion project as an investment to Dubai-based Emaar Company but the project was delayed due to internal hostilities, political upheaval and Coronavirus. 

NIC chairperson Suha Al-Najjar said more than 2,000 families, made homeless by the way, had built illegal houses on the project site and that there is a need to tackle this problem before kicking off the project. 

“This is not the only problem…the Industry and Defence Ministries have facilities in that area and we have been discussing with them an agreement to relocate those facilities to other areas,” Al-Najjar told Al-Iqtisad News and other Iraqi publications. 

“For this reason, we cannot award Al-Rasheed project for the time being…we need to have those obstacles cleared before we push ahead with this project.” 

Officials said in 2018 the project would comprise in the first phase nearly 70,000 houses and is part of a post-war programme to rebuild the country. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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