Iraq intends to award France’s transport giant Alstom a contract to build a 1,200-km rail and road network within its planned “dry canal” project that will link the OPEC member’s North and the South, an official was quoted on Tuesday as saying.

The Transport Ministry has already obtained cabinet approval to include part of the project’s costs in the 2023 budget so tenders could be issued, said Jawad Shuwaili, information director at the Iraqi Rail Company, a Ministry’s subsidiary.

In remarks published in the official gazette and carried by Aliqtisad News and other publications, Shuwaili said the project includes the construction of freight and passenger rail way, as well as a motorway for trucks, adding that it will link the Southern Faw Port with central and North Iraq towards Turkish ports.

“The project could also include the construction of a gas line…the main contract will be executed by Alstom, which is specialised in rail and train industry,” he said.

Alstom is already been involved in a project to build Iraq’s first elevated metro in the capital Baghdad. The project, with an estimated cost of $2.5 billion, has been delayed due to financial, security and political problems.

Officials have said a feasibility study for the dry canal project would be prepared by the Italian engineering services company PEG.