مشروع سكة حديد كربلاء

Abstract EN

The first proposal of establishing a railway net that links Baghdad with Khaneqeen and the holy city of Karbala was submitted by the governor of Baghdad; Midhat Pasha in 1869, but this project didn't come into existence because of the lack of sufficient funding.

In 1878, he made a deal with the supreme traders in Baghdad to revive this project due to its important economic benefits of activating the transfer of crops grown in central Iraq, especially grain, to be distributed in Baghdad and other cities when these materials could not be transferred from the areas of production directly.

Besides, the trains could facilitate carrying the coffins and visitors from Iran to Karbala and to the other holy cities.

The Ottoman authority agreed and thus the concession was signed on the 17 of Shaaban 1297 AH / 1880 AD.

The project was entrusted to a committee of five elected members with a general assembly, composed of all other contributing members, while the government was given the right to supervise the project through Beneficiary Department (Labor Department).

The negotiations between the project management committee and the government represented a model of the slow bureaucratic style that led the negotiations to a complete halt.

The next attempts to revive the project were all unsuccessful.

When the Ottoman government signed an agreement with the German government to establish a railway in Iraq, it was scheduled to go through Karbala toward the south, but unfortunately the work was seized when the First World War broke out.