The Iranian government has picked up a new contractor for construction of a key railway extension into the Iraqi territory with sources saying that the bidder would provide full finances worth 100 million euros for the project.
The semi-official ISNA news agency cited a senior transportation ministry official as saying on Wednesday that the selected private sector company would be quicker in finishing the 33-kilometer railway that would finally link the southwestern Iranian city of Shalamcheh to Iraq’s Basra.
Abbas Khatibi said that the company is planning to commission works inside Iraq to an Iraqi contractor to expedite the project and finish it on time.
Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri announced on Tuesday that the Mostazafan Foundation (MFJ) had been removed from the Iran-Iraq railway project and replaced with a company identified as Fadak Arzesh Afarinan.
The MFJ, a large semi-government institution that has been awarded with key construction projects in Iran, had been supposed to provide 60 percent of the finances for the railway project inside Iraq and the rest was the responsibility of the Iranian government.
Reports in July suggested that hurdles had been cleared for the progress of the Iran-Iraq railway, a project that has stalled since 2014 due to the security situation in Iraq.
A 17-kilometer section of the railway inside the Iranian territory that ends in Shalamchah has already been built.
Once finished, the project would hugely boost trade and passenger travel between Iran and Iraq while it would have larger implications for countries in the region.