ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Monday inaugurated the Sheikhan-Ba’adre dual carriageway project, which aims to improve road safety and connectivity between Erbil and areas of Duhok province, alongside the completion of roads connecting nearby villages.

The Sheikhan-Ba’adre dual carriageway project, which began in October 2025, aims to ease travel between Erbil and areas around Duhok province by bringing villages and subdistricts closer together.

“I hope everyone in the area follows the traffic rules and takes care of their own and other citizens' safety. God willing, they will benefit from this road and this project,” Barzani said on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony for the road on Monday.

“I know that other things have come with this project - some other roads to the villages have been completed as well,” he added.

The project involves a 30-kilometer road built to modern standards. It aims to enhance road safety, improve traffic flow, reduce accidents, and support the Kurdistan Region’s economic and trade growth.

It is the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “duty to serve the people of the Kurdistan Region without distinction,” he said, expressing happiness that the Region “develops day by day and projects like this are completed.”

The move comes as part of a broader governmental effort to restore and construct roads in the Region, with a series of similar projects launched in recent years.

In late August, KRG announced a project to construct a new 60-meter road in Erbil at a cost of nearly $27.7 million, saying it is expected to have a “noticeable” impact on traffic flow in the capital.

In October 2025, Barzani inaugurated the 160-million-dollar Gomaspan-Smaquli highway in Erbil. In September of the same year, Barzani inaugurated a multi-million-dollar road project connecting the Sheikhan district to Lalish.

In 2024, the premier laid the foundation stone for the Erbil-Koya two-sided highway, which had an estimated cost of around 440 billion dinars. The highway is 46 kilometers long and 32 meters wide, containing five overpasses to connect outlying roads to the highway.

Since the ninth KRG cabinet came to office, over 700 road projects have been implemented and close to 17,000 traffic signs have been installed on the Region’s roads.