GCC mulls 108 billion dollars to link four countries

Dubai, Jul 15 : The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait are planning a massive rail network at a cost of 108 billion dollar to lift trade and passenger traffic, organisers of a rail expo said.

Transportation projects in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait worth an estimated 170 billion dollar including the rail network will change the way trade is done, according to Satish Khanna, General Manager of Al Fajer Information and Services, the organisers of the GulfRail, 2012 to be held in April next year.

An 11 billion dollar UAE railway network that will be 1,500km long is scheduled to roll out over the next 7-8 years.

Abu Dhabi has also revealed its plans for a new rail network, called the Union Railway, that would serve Al Ain. The construction of the Union Railway is about to start this year and will cost between 30 billion Dirham and 40 billion Dirham.

Across the region, a GCC network will include one rail line of 1,970 km connecting all GCC countries and Qatar via a bridge. The second line of 1,984 km will stretch between Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman. The broader perspective would be for the network to extend to Jordan and Syria, linking the Gulf with Europe and Asia via Turkey, Mr Khanna said.

V G Ramakrishnan, Senior Director, Automotive and Transportation Practice, South Asia and Middle East at Frost and Sullivan, told Gulf News that an efficient railway network in the UAE and the GCC region will substantially change the way the transportation of goods and people takes place.