THE 2,177-km-long GCC rail network costing $200 billion, which will link all six Gulf states by rail for the first time will be fully operational in 2018, said Dr Ramiz Al Assar, World Bank resident adviser of the GCC Secretariat General in Riyadh.
“The designs of the link network, which will run down the Gulf coast from Kuwait, through Saudi Arabia, to the UAE and Oman, with branches linking Bahrain and Qatar, will be completed by the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year. Construction on the link is to start in 2014-15 and it will be fully operational in 2018,” Dr Al Assar told the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Rail and Metro Summit, held recently in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Abu Dhabi is leading the GCC rail network with its Dh40 billion ($11 billion) Etihad Rail project. The 1,200-km line, planned to be completed in 2018, will link major industrial zones, cities and ports in the UAE, and will eventually connect with the GCC railway.
The first phase of its railway network is nearing completion while Phase Two construction contracts should be awarded before the end of the year.
Oman has begun preliminary design on the rail project with plans to launch construction of the first part of the rail network in the fourth quarter of 2014. “We expect the works will start in 2014 and in the fourth quarter, the first segment starts,” Salim bin Said bin Salim Alami, assistant director-general at Oman’s transportation ministry, said on the sidelines of the rail conference.
By then, contracts for various project packages will have been awarded by the Oman Railway Company.
“Designs of a causeway to link Bahrain to the GCC railway are expected to be approved in the third quarter of next year and there are plans to link Muscat with Yemen,” Dr Al Assar said.
Dr Al Assar said a tender for a study to set up a GCC railway authority was to be issued by the first quarter of next year.
Dr Al Assar said talks were under way between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, on the one hand, and between Kuwait and Iraq, on the other, on connecting the Arabian Mashreq (Eastern) to Maghreb (Western) networks.
“This year has seen a turning point in the regional rail market,” says Meed editorial director Richard Thompson. “Over the past 10 months, we have seen the region’s ambitions to build metro systems and main line rail networks start to become a reality, with more than $30 billion worth of rail contracts awarded so far this year.”
The single biggest investments this year saw $22 billion worth of construction contracts awarded in June on Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Metro.
The rail boom also raises challenges for the region, particularly around skills shortage and supply chain bottlenecks.
“Everybody will be competing for the same resources. And there is a real risk of unnecessary delays and cost escalation unless people manage the situation effectively. A co-ordinated approach is required,” Thompson said.
