$250bn GCC rail work ‘on track’
01 April 2016
Work on the 1,200-km cross-border regional rail network in the Gulf is going as per schedule with the technical specifications and the legal framework likely to be completed by the end of the year, said a report.
The GCC is committed to completing the project in accordance with international best practices and some of the member states have already completed their phases, reported the Gulf News citing a senior official.
“The GCC has pledged ongoing support to this project through partnerships with the private sector and it will go forward,” the GCC assistant secretary general for economic affairs Abdullah bin Juma Al Shibli was quoted as saying.
The ambitious passenger and cargo railway project being built at a cost of $250 billion will run from Kuwait down the Gulf coast and through the UAE to Oman, with lines connecting to Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s interior and Red Sea coast.
Speaking at last month’s Middle East Rail conference in Dubai, UAE, Al Shibli did not discuss a final completion date for the project.
In February, the UAE’s Minister of Infrastructure Development Abdullah Belhaif Al Nuaimi said the project’s 2018 completion date was unrealistic.
Government spending in the Gulf states has been cut back over the last 18 months amid declining oil prices.
- CDE Global marks major success in Kuwait
- Kuwait to launch $4bn projects
- $3bn industrial city eyed for Suez
- Liwa complex wins $3.8bn funds
- Oman awards $1.5bn worth of IWPs
- Update
- Modern Abrasives adds German brand to portfolio
- Qatar law on PPPs by year-end
- Qatar mega mall ‘to cost 20pc less’
- SSH role for Kuwait hotel
- 214,000 rooms under construction across MEA
- Oman’s $600m ITC to open in 2017
- Asaas to build four-star hotel
- Bahrain issues $956m tenders
- $250bn GCC rail work ‘on track’
- Oman railway 4 years away
- Galfar wins $299m contract
