‘Visitors’ city’ project on the way in Karbala

KARBALA / IraqiNews.com: A project to set up a ‘visitors’ city’ at the entrance of Karbala province has been referred to a local company, a media source said on Saturday. “Today, the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Affairs referred the project, whose total cost is $6.887 billion Iraqi dinars (1 U.S. dollars = 1,118 Iraqi dinars), to a local company,” the media director of Karbala’s municipal council, Majid Naji, told IraqiNews.com. The project will be implemented on an area of 40,000 square meters under the supervision of Karbala’s municipality, Naji noted. Karbala, with an estimated population of 572,300 people in 2003, is the capital of the province and is considered to be one of Shiite Muslims’ holiest cities. The city, 110 km south of Baghdad, is one of Iraq’s wealthiest, profiting both from religious visitors and agricultural produce, especially dates. It is made up of two districts, “Old Karbala,” the religious centre, and “New Karbala,” the residential district containing Islamic schools and government buildings. SS (P) 1