THE development, construction, operation and maintenance of Oman’s multi-billion-dollar national railway is expected to generate a raft of investment and business opportunities for the sultanate, the Oman Daily Observer reported, quoting top officials overseeing the ambitious project.

At a national symposium organised last month by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, key business and investment opportunities associated with the mammoth project were outlined by a senior representative of Italffer (GruppoFerrovieDelloStatoItaliane), the engineering consultancy arm of Italian Railway, which was recently awarded a contract by the Omani government to provide preliminary design consultancy services linked to the Oman National Railway Project.

Luka Beccastrini, Middle East regional head of Italferr, said that construction of the 2,244-km national network traversing the length of the sultanate will require the supply of an estimated 12,000 km of rail.

In this regard, a rail production plant in the sultanate, designed and equipped to produce high quality rails, will not only be viable, but also lucrative in terms of catering to the future maintenance requirements of the network, the report quoted him as saying.

Further, the requirement of an estimated 10.2 million concrete sleepers to be laid all along the length of the network gives rise to the potential need for at least five production plants to be established at key locations along the project. Output from a medium-sized plant is about 300,000 sleepers per year.

The potential for investment in at least 10 quarries for mining stone required for the estimated 23 million cu m of ballast and sub-ballast required for the project, was outlined. Significant investments will be required in the establishment of plants and facilities for civil works. In this regard, he underlined the potential for entire townships to mushroom at worksites expected to emerge at intervals of between 50 and 100 km alongside the alignment.

Given the undulating terrain through which the alignment runs, a staggering 1.7 billion cu m of cut-and-fill will be required, along with some 20.25 million cu m of earthworks, Beccastrini said.

The project scope also calls for 60 million sq m of geotextiles, 2.25 million m of drainage pipes, 13,500 manholes, 3,000 km of unmetalled roads along the right-of-way, 1,000 km of paved dual carriageways, 6,500 km of security fencing, 1,200 pedestrian gates, and 300 vehicle gates – requirements that will fuel demand for investment in facilities and services.

Also, an estimated 35 km of tunnels will be required to be built along the network, in addition to 45 km of viaducts, 39 km of rail bridges and 48 km of wadi bridges, he said.