France’s Systra has confirmed it will carry out the preliminary engineering design for the $3bn Baghdad metro project.

Baghdad Municipality appointed Systra to design the project in June 2011. Preliminary engineering work will start immediately (MEED 22:5:11).

Systra is already 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 help the municipality appoint a contractor. When Systra was awarded the design contract, the firm said it would take about 18 months to complete the work. This means Systra could invite bids for the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contract in early 2013.

Line 1 of the metro will be about 22 kilometres 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 (MEED 8:6:10). The metro is intended to form the backbone of Baghdad’s future transport development.

Plans for the metro date back to the late 1970s and had it been built then, it would have been the first urban railway in the Arab world. Instead, the plans were shelved due to Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran.