Bloomberg and Reuters report that Iraq has invited foreign companies to compete for a $450 million monorail project in the southern holy city of Kerbala [Karbala].

The city, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, hosts the shrines of two Shi’ite imams and hosts millions of Shi’ite pilgrims each year at several major religious rites.

The head of the Kerbala Investment Commission, Taif Abdul-Hussein [Taief Ali], said on Sunday the 18-km (11-mile) monorail would be built from a northern entrance to the city to the main Shi’ite shrines in the central area and then towards the northeastern city entrance.

The train would be capable of speeds up to 100 km per hour and the line would have 18 stations, situated about 900-1000 metres apart. The last station would be about 200 meters from the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrine.

Lebanese, Iranian and Gulf companies have expressed interest in the project.

In June 2010, the southern city of Najaf awarded TransGlobim International, a privately-owned Canadian consortium, a $600 million contract to build the country’s first monorail.

In January 2011, France’s Alstom signed a memorandum of understanding to build metro line above Baghdad’s streets.

(Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters)

AKnews reports that over 16 million pilgrims flocked to Karbala to mark Arbain, the 40th day after Ashura, which is the day Shiite’s believe Imam Hussein Ibn Ali was martyred in the 7th century.

The deputy leader of the Karbala Provincial Council Nassif, Jassem al-Khutabi, told AKnews that over half a million come from abroad, including from Europe, America, Australia, Iran, India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Afghanistan.

Khutani called on the federal government and the Iraqi Council of Representatives to vote on Karbala City’s request to form a special body to deal with the millions of visitors to Iraq.

“The visitors need security and services that Karbala and other popular provinces cannot manage without the cooperation of their neighbors.”

(Source: AKnews)

A new railway line between Karbala and Musayyib [Musayyab] was opened this week by the Transport Ministry, reports AKnews.

The new line was opened in Babil and Karbala Provinces just to the south of Baghdad, to transport Shiite pilgrims marking the 40th day after Hussein Ibn Ali was martyred. Around 8,000 people are expected to be traveling from Musayyib to Karbala for the ceremonies.

The federal government had allocated 5 billion IQD ($4.2 million USD) to provide services, including transport, to visitors.

The chairman of Karbala Provincial Council, Mohammed Hamid al-Moussawi, told AKnews the Ministry wants to reduce road traffic when pilgrims return to their homes after the ceremonies.

“The most significant problem for Karbala is transferring the visitors to their provinces at the end of the visit, although new railway lines have been opened and several Iraqi ministries including Trade, Transport and Defense participate in the transport process.”

“The government in Karbala began building a modern road network last year to link the Province with its neighbours. The Ya Houssein road cost 50 billion IQD ($42.8 million USD) and was paid for by the Iraqi Council of Representatives. It will reduce traffic on the main roads that connect Karbala to Baghdad, Babil and Najaf Provinces, and it is scheduled to be completed this year.”

(Source: AKnews)

[Picture: Musayyab – Karbala railway]

Iraq’s National Investment Commission (NIC) announced on Monday the details of the new Kerbala Monorail, and invited interested parties to contact them:

1. Length of the line (18 KM)
2. Project Type (Monorail) – High Concrete mono rail of two ways known locally as Kerbala Monorail.
3. Number of stations (20) the distance between each station and another (800- 1000M)
4. In the first stage, the line shall connect the Visitors City – Baghdad road, Al- Bedaa railway station, Bab Baghdad area, Tweredg road, the university, Ibrahemiah and the Visitors’ road of Babylon Gate.
5. The successive coming of the trains to the stations must take (1-2) Minutes
6. Maximum train speed 90 km/hour
7. Number of vehicles for each train (4-6)
8. The electrical power is to be provided by the project generators only.

Willing investors can submit their technical, economic offers and the funding plans with filling up the investment application form available on NIC website and enclosing all documents required (mentioned in page No. 7 of the same application) and send it either directly to the NIC premises or to the email:

oss@investpromo.gov.iq .

Notice: applications can be submitted within one month from the date of publishing this announcement.

Karbala relies heavily on Iranian pilgrims to important religious sites in the area. But hotel owners are crying foul: they say Iranians are openly monopolizing tourism in Karbala and covertly buying up local properties, according to this article from Niqash.

Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Every week the central Iraqi city of Karbala hosts thousands of visitors, most of them on religious pilgrimage from Iran and on their way to visit some of the most important destinations in the world for Shiite Muslims, inside and around the city. Most of the Iranians are on package tours and spend time in Karbala, Najaf and in Baghdad.

One might logically conclude that the Iraqis working in the tourism sector in these cities would benefit financially from their Iranian visitors. However many local tourism operators in Karbala say that one Iranian firm, with a virtual monopoly on Iranian tourism to the area, is making all the rules and all the profit.

Founded in 2003, after the fall of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime, Shamsa, which is described as a central agency for Iranian pilgrimages to Iraq, has over a thousand branches all over Iran. And as such, Iraqi hotel owners and tourism operators in the Karbala area say that Shamsa is directly, and indirectly, monopolizing religious tourism in their country. “Due to this company’s cunning methods, a huge amount of the revenue from Iranian visitors is just going back to Iran,” they complained.

There are around 300 hotels in Karbala, many of them concentrated in the city centre near two important shrines. And almost all of them make their money from Iranian tourists. Statistics indicate that tourism is the major source of income in the area. Some private citizens in Karbala also get in on the act, providing accommodation in their own homes – however in general, these do not meet the standards set by Shamsa and are used by individuals travelling privately.

Lafarge plans to triple cement production over the next two to three years at its plant in Karbala, according to Bloomberg.

Eric le Blan, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge’s partner MerchantBridge, told the agency that production at Karbala would increase from 576,000 tons of cement per year to at least 1.8 million tons by 2013 or 2014.

Demand for building materials in Iraq is expected to increase dramatically as the country develops its infrastructure and build 2.5 million homes by 2015. Annual demand for cement in Iraq is about 20 million tons at present and is expected to rise to at least 35 million tons by 2015, versus current domestic production of about 5 million tons a year.

The company expects to start breaking even in January.

MerchantBridge completed a $220 million deal with Lafarge in 2010, the world’s biggest cement company, under which they took over the Karbala plant on a 15-year lease from the government. Production at the time was about 300,000 tons.

MerchantBridge plans to pursue additional investments in Iraq next year, including in the electricity market, where multibillion dollar projects are under way to help resolve power shortages, le Blan said.

(Source: Bloomberg)

The Iraqi Oil Ministry wants to build two new refineries in the provinces of Karbala [Kerbala] and Missan [Maysan], in order to reduce the country’s dependency on foreign oil imports, according to AKnews.

The one in Karbala will produce up to 140.000 barrels of fuel per day, the one in Missan up to 150,000.

The announcement comes one day after the Oil Ministry reported that Iraq is still not able to produce enough oil and gas to meet its own demands. While Iraq produces 8 million liters of liquid gas per day, it consumes approximately 12 million liters.

The situation is even worse as far as oil is concerned: 12 million liters of refined oil are produced in Iraq every day, however another 12 million liters have to be imported from international markets.

In a move that some regards as a panic reaction, the Oil Ministry this weekend halted its programme to provide free fuel to owners of generators. The programme started in June in order to increase private energy production and cost $400 million [468 billion Iraqi dinars].

(Source: AKnews)

(Picture: Baiji refinery)

AKnews reports that a primary school funded by a Kuwaiti grant of more than $2 million [2.4 billion Iraqi dinars] was opened in Karbala on Wednesday.

Opening the school, the undersecretary of the education ministry said that Iraq needs more than 5,000 schools to be opened during the next year to cope with the rising demand.

Karbala governor said the planning ministry has prevented the local authority from building schools from regional development funds saying that this will create a crisis in the provision of school places for students next year.

Undersecretary Hassanein Fadel al-Maala said: “The school is one of seven schools established by the Kuwaiti Development Grant. The first was opened in Erbil province and two will be opened in the capital, Baghdad, and one school in each of Karbala, Kirkuk, Najaf, Babil and Mosul.

“Iraq needs to build 5,000 schools during the next year and it is a task that needs large sums of money. The Federal Education Ministry is moving towards contracting with international companies to build these schools according to the credit payment terms.”

Karbala city (108 km southwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad) has been flooded with displaced families during the sectarian violence of the last few years, especially from the provinces of Diyala, Mosul and Baghdad, increasing the population from 650,000 people to more than 1,250,000, according to the Karbala governor.

(Source: AKnews)