Baghdad - Al-Forat
The government has launched a three-year national plan to rehabilitate infrastructure in 18 provinces, covering roads, bridges, water treatment plants and sewage treatment, in a move the Council of Ministers said aims to “close the file of stalled projects” and improve the services provided to citizens.
Speaking at a press conference after the Council of Ministers session, the government spokesman said the plan had been given initial allocations of about 21 trillion dinars, spread over three annual phases, with the first phase starting early next year in the provinces most in need according to poverty and population-density indicators.
Priority for stalled projects
According to the plan document seen by Al-Forat, the status of more than 640 stalled or halted projects will be reviewed within the first six months so that work can resume on those that can be completed, while projects will be taken away from struggling companies and handed to alternative contractors.
- Rehabilitating 3,200 kilometres of roads linking provinces and districts
- Maintaining 85 bridges and building new ones in congested cities
- Expanding water treatment plants in areas short of drinking water
- Completing sewerage networks in unserved neighbourhoods
The spokesman said the plan would be funded from investment allocations in the federal budget, alongside concessional loans from international financing institutions for water and sewerage projects and public-private partnerships for economically viable road projects, stressing that the government would not borrow to cover operating expenses.
Electronic monitoring of progress
The plan relies on a unified electronic platform linking ministries and provinces, where completion rates are updated monthly and backed by field photographs, with part of its data open to the public. The spokesman said any project more than 20% behind schedule would automatically be referred to a high-level follow-up committee.
“We will not measure success by the number of projects we announce, but by the number of projects citizens can see on the ground”Government spokesman
Over the next two weeks the Ministry of Planning is due to hold meetings with provincial governors to draw up lists of priority projects in each province, ahead of including them in next year’s budget and submitting it to the Council of Representatives, while experts called for civil society organisations to be involved in monitoring implementation to ensure transparency.
