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The capital is witnessing the largest urban renaissance in the field of transportation
Reportage 02/29/2024
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Ahmed Bashi
After hope and waiting that lasted for more than four decades, here is the Baghdad Metro project returning to the forefront of reality after dusting it off and declaring it an investment opportunity, resolving years of traffic congestion crises, and being enough to save thousands upon thousands of citizens, due to the overpopulation occurring in the capital, Baghdad.
Popular Optimism
Muhammad Ammar, owner of one of the employee transport lines, a resident of the Bismayah area, said in his interview with (Al-Sabah): “Despite leaving early, his employees are delayed every day in arriving to their departments, and they may take long times that may reach hours to enter the capital, Baghdad.” For reasons including the bad southern entrances, strict security reasons, and also the entry of large vehicles such as trucks and their drivers not adhering to the side designated for them, which creates crowding and major obstruction at the entrances, and this is a major daily suffering that we face.”
Ammar added, "The available projects initiated by Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani, including the metro project, will contribute to reducing traffic congestion."
This happened to many people, including the student at the University of Baghdad, Hussein Issam Adel, who expressed his suffering from traffic jams, especially while crossing from the Karkh side to Rusafa, stating, “The traffic jams cause me delays that make me miss some days of attending the first class, and sometimes... Other: I have difficulty using public transportation, especially at peak times during official working hours.”
Permanent Solutions
Traffic expert Major General Ammar Walid Al-Khayyat began his speech to (Al-Sabah) to say: “The Baghdad metro and the suspended train are considered permanent solutions and not patchwork, because they may expand and succeed in the future and all cities in the world are unbearable to drive in, but Baghdad is the most suitable if the projects are implemented for it.” Al-Mu'allaqah, where the Baghdad Metro operates 18 continuous hours, and in the first stage transports 50,000 passengers per hour, in addition to its economic feasibility, by not transporting citizens by vehicles, and it must be relied upon."
Al-Khayyat added, "Baghdad will become a 'transit' because the metro is a partial solution to the traffic jam crisis, and this will be through the completion of available projects, such as the fourth and fifth ring road through which vehicles in large provinces do not enter Baghdad," noting that "reducing this crisis in Baghdad, Roads and public transportation must be new, not just buses, and the completion of the metro and sky train project will enable the law to be implemented fairly through the commitment of all violators, who contributed to the momentum by driving in the opposite direction, and other driver culture crises.”
An investment opportunity
. The Iraqi environment encourages and does not repel investment. This is what the official spokesman for the Ministry of Construction and Housing, Istabraq Sabah, said in his interview with (Al-Sabah): “The Ministry contributes effectively to projects to relieve traffic congestion, along with the capital secretariat and the rest of the sectoral authorities for the purpose of benefiting from our cadres to implement The metro project, where the first package of the Ministry’s projects reached (16) and on the ground (15) and only the Masafi intersection remained. The second package represented the projects on the Karkh and Rusafa sides and some of their intersections, in addition to the fourth ring road surrounding the capital, which reached a length of (94) km and a width. More than (100) meters, transporting traffic from the northern to the southern regions and vice versa, without passing through the capital, with the availability of rest stops and others.”
Sabah stressed, “The Iraqi environment is encouraging and not repulsive to investment, and this is achieved through internal and external support from the political class and the support of the Iraqi investment law, in addition to security, political, social and economic stability, and oil prices have become a promising market to attract solid investments from foreign companies in Iraq, including Providing the new jeweler city in the Abu Ghraib area through investment.
Pointing out that "the establishment of development projects such as the sky train and the Baghdad metro are of utmost importance because they contribute to developing the road and bridge sector, and removing bottlenecks in the capital, and they support the movement of citizens. However, the completion of the metro project falls mainly on the responsibility of the Baghdad Municipality and is supposed to undertake it."
Government policy,
financial policy advisor, Dr. Mazhar Muhammad Salih, explained in his interview with (Al-Sabah), that “over the course of four-odd decades of wars and conflicts and the weakness of the appropriate logistical organization for managing the infrastructure of the capital, Baghdad, specifically the means of large mass transportation whose areas have narrowed, which has made the capital replace... Its transportation is by individual transportation, without this being accompanied by greater development in road networks. The current traditional road capacity of a city with a population of nearly 9 million people began to bear additional modes of transportation that increased ten times its capacity, which led to the disruption of the efficiency of transportation and movement between the outskirts of the capital. Its focus is due to road congestion and loss of economic time for business, not to mention environmental pollution due to car exhausts.”
Saleh pointed out that “the available solutions lie in building fast-moving, low-cost internal mass transportation alternatives, including modern metro trains, which have become a basic need accompanying the campaign to relieve bottlenecks in the capital, in addition to the bridges and suspended roads whose initiative is led by the Prime Minister within the policy of reconstruction and provision of services.” In the infrastructure in Baghdad and all governorates.
An integrated project.
While the Mayor of Baghdad, Ammar Musa Kadhim, in previous statements to the Iraqi News Agency (INA), revealed new details regarding the capital metro project, which will be implemented on the Karkh and Rusafa sides, and while he confirmed the intention to contract with a consulting company soon to begin the requirements of the project, he pointed out that Working to implement projects to solve the problem of housing and traffic congestion in
the capital.
Kazem said: “Within the government directives of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, the Baghdad Municipality continues its ongoing work to implement many service projects within the borders of the capital in the water, sanitation, cladding, and green spaces sectors.”
He added, "The Council of Ministers agreed, among these projects, to include the Baghdad Metro project within the special budget of the Baghdad Municipality, and soon a consulting company will be contracted to begin meeting the project requirements."
Kazem continued, "Previous contracts for the Baghdad Metro have not been cancelled," pointing out that "the project will cover 80% of the capital's area, to be an integrated project on the Karkh and Rusafa sides, and will solve the transportation problem in Baghdad."
“Metro” historically
The history of the "Baghdad Metro" project dates back to 1980, when the British company "DBP" designed the first phase of the metro, which cost $1.8 billion, consisting of a 32-kilometre route and 36 stops and waiting stations, and is divided into two lines: the first connects Adhamiya and the city of Al-Sadr, but it was disrupted by the Iran-Iraq war, then the invasion of Kuwait and the war to liberate it.
In 1984, a Brazilian company presented an integrated design for an expansion that included the first and second lines of the metro project, which included adding a distance of 11 kilometers to the line and 10 stations spread outside the coverage area of the first phase of the project.
After 2003, the project was proposed again by parliamentarians and members of local councils, as a solution to reduce traffic congestion, but security conditions, corruption, and political instability prevailed.
In July 2011, the Baghdad Municipality announced that a French company was preparing preliminary designs for the capital’s metro project, and called on French companies to compete with other international companies to implement reconstruction projects.
But the project did not pass this stage until 2017.
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