The design of the US$3mn Baghdad metro has been awarded by the Baghdad Municipality to the French company Systra.
Systra will start to carry out the design work immediately with work expected to take 18 months. Then bids for the construction work will be issued in early 2013.
The scope of the work involves carrying out the basic design of the two lines of Baghdad metro as well as preparing the tender documents for the construction of the project.
Once the tender has been issued, Systra will also assist the municipality appoint a contractor.
In 2010, Baghdad Municipality said it had shortlisted eight international firms to bid on the design contract although not all the firms confirmed their interest.
The project will be carried out on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis.
Line 1 of the metro will be about 22km long and Line 2 will be about 18km long. Both lines will have passenger stations built each kilometre.
Systra has already been involved in supervising the feasibility study for the metro. The project was temporarily stalled in September 2010 due to the political situation in Iraq. Baghdad Municipality intends to fund the metro directly.
