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India staging comeback in Iraq with U.S. help?

By Atul Aneja

AMMAN Sept. 19. The growing rapport between India and Iraq's new rulers is beginning to yield commercial dividends as Indian companies are once again beginning to find their feet in Baghdad.

But the focus so far has been on enhancing trade and seeking reconstruction projects funded by the occupation forces. "At the moment, we are not going into investments, partly on account of legitimacy problems of Iraq's post-war government. We will sink in our money only after these problems are resolved," diplomatic sources said. Nevertheless questions about the legality of the new Iraqi regime is not preventing Indian companies from seeking subcontracts in Iraq's larger reconstruction projects, focussed on relaying its battered infrastructure in fields such as power generation and waste management.

For instance, India's Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) along with Siemens of Germany is already rehabilitating four phases of the Baiji power station in northern Iraq, not far from the Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline which has been repeatedly blown up by forces opposed to the Iraq's U.S. occupation. Phase one of this project is expected to be ready in the next three weeks, and electricity-starved citizens of Baghdad could expect an additional 100 MW of power soon. An Indian company is also a top contender for building a multi-million-sewage treatment plant both for the cities of Basra and Baghdad. India is also back in contention as a leading supplier of wheat to Iraq and there have been discussions about building new warehousing facilities close to the Jordan-Iraq border.

In the oil sector, the Chairman of ONGC Videsh, Atul Chandra, visited Baghdad in June and there are two exploration blocks in southern and northern Iraq in which the company is hopeful of taking part.

Optimism in the Indian camp to make a comeback in Iraq is mainly on account of the growing interaction with the U.S. representatives of the Coalition Provisional Authority based in Baghdad and Amman. Not surprisingly, a composite CPA and Iraqi ministerial delegation, the first of its kind under the new dispensation in Baghdad, is heading for India to take an independent look at Indian commercial, manufacturing and engineering capabilities.

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