New links between the provinces will cut travel times, support tourism, and connect Erbil, Koya, Dukan seamlessly soon.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has taken great strides in many areas and achieved good results. It has also launched a revolution in the road and bridge sector, implementing several strategic and important projects, some completed and others still under construction.
According to data from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Media and Information, from the beginning of Masrour Barzani’s tenure as Prime Minister on July 10, 2019, until July 2025, the KRG has implemented nearly 2000 service projects in the road and bridge sector at a cost of more than six trillion Iraqi dinars.
One of the projects scheduled to be put into service for citizens in the near future is the Gomaspan–Smaquli dual carriageway. This road, one of the main routes between Erbil and Sulaymaniyah provinces and the independent administration of Raparin, has entered the implementation phase and is being built to high quality, with 90% of the work now complete.
The Gomaspan–Smaquli dual carriageway project connects Erbil and Sulaymaniyah provinces and also includes the road around the Gomaspan Dam, which, according to the plan, will create an attractive tourist destination. The road is being built to high standards, with detailed attention to quality, and all aspects are being addressed so that drivers can travel on it easily.
The project’s budget is 435 billion dinars, and a staff of 1,500 people works on the road for 10 hours daily. This road shortens people’s travel time by about 20 to 25 minutes, and when the Erbil–Koya road is completed, it will enter the center of Erbil city from the Kasnazan point. If any tourist wants to go to Duhok province, they can directly use the 150-meter, 120-meter, and 100-meter streets to reach that province. It is worth mentioning that with the completion of the Erbil–Koya dual carriageway and then connecting Koya to Dukan through a new dual carriageway, the centers of both Erbil and Sulaymaniyah provinces will be linked. Sulaymaniyah will become closer to the capital, and citizens will be able to travel the road between the two cities in a much shorter time.
The Erbil–Koya road project is very important and connects Koya to the capital. After its completion, the travel time will be reduced from one hour to less than half an hour. The road is thirty-eight kilometers long, will be thirty-two meters wide, and a bridge with a length of two hundred and fifty meters will be built on it. It includes five overpasses and a range of other services.
This comes at a time when five other road and bridge projects are currently under implementation in Kurdistan, including the Bardarash–Kalak dual carriageway at a cost of 100 billion dinars, the Ba’adre–Etit road project at a cost of 134 billion dinars, the Akre–Qandil road project at about 30 billion dinars, the Kalar–Darbandikhan road project at a cost of 136 billion dinars, and the Kore–Shaqlawa and from there to Qandil project at a cost of 95 billion dinars are under implementation.
Despite the prolonged negative effects of the financial crisis and the unconstitutional and illegal suspension of the Kurdistan Region’s budget share by Iraq for more than eleven years, the provision of service projects by the Kurdistan Regional Government continues, and new service projects are being implemented daily in all cities of the Kurdistan Region.
The Kurdish Globe