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Iraq's National Investment Commission (NIC) has opened bids for the Najaf-Karbala metro project. 

The railway link will run from Najaf International airport and will terminate in Karbala city centre. The 90-kilometre metro line will have four main stations.

The project will be developed using a design, build, operate, maintain, finance and transfer model.

The bid opening ceremony was held last week and was attended by chairman of the NIC, Haider Mohammed Makkiya; Nasser Al-Asadi, advisor for transportation affairs to the Iraqi prime minister; along other representatives from the government entities.

Project consultants and presumed bidders, including Spain's Imathia Construccion, Iran’s Milad Group and Qatar’s Urbacon, also attended the ceremony.

The Najaf-Karbala metro line is one of the two projects that were tendered by the NIC on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis earlier this year. The other project was the Baghdad Metro scheme.

Last week, MEED reported that the NIC had awarded an estimated $2.5bn contract to develop and operate the Baghdad Metro project.

In a statement published by local media, the NIC revealed that the contract was awarded to a consortium comprising France’s Systra, Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais (SNCF) and Alstom; Spain’s Talgo and Sener; and Turkish contractors.

Germany's Deutsche Bank is the project finance adviser.

Malaysian consulting firms ConsultantHSS and HSS Engineering are working on both projects.