Downtown Kut bridges to be set up

WASSIT / IraqiNews.com: A local company on Thursday initiated work on three bridges at al-Mutanabbi intersection in downtown Kut at a cost of nearly $24 million, a senior official said. “The project will be financed through the budget allocated to provincial development projects for the year 2008 with an estimated completion period of 660 days,” Engineer Sabeeh Laftah, an assistant to Wassit’s mayor for technical affairs told IraqiNews.com. “Being one of the most significant projects in the province, the bridges will help ease traffic bottleneck at the intersection linking Kut to Baghdad, Amara and Nassiriya,” Laftah noted. “Two two-way 650-meter bridges will be established, in addition to an upper 850-meter bridge,” he added. A Shiite province, Wassit, 180 km south of Baghdad, is in the east of the country. Its name comes from the Arabic word meaning “middle,” as it lies along the Tigris about midway between Baghdad and Basra. Its major cities include the capital, al-Kut, and al-Hayy. Prior to 1976 it was known as Kut Province. SS (S) 1