More than $15 billion in infrastructure construction costs for the Gulf Railway Project
Amlak - Follow-ups
Abdullah Al-Shibli, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs at the GCC Secretariat, emphasized that based on the interest and concern of the GCC leaders, the decision to establish a railway project linking the GCC countries to each other has direct positive effects on facilitating trade between the GCC countries.

Infrastructure of the project
In a recent press release, Al-Shibli explained that the railway project will support joint investments between GCC countries, which will contribute to the activation of trade exchange and the Gulf economy, pointing out that the route of the GCC railway will start from Kuwait through Dammam to the Kingdom of Bahrain and from Dammam to Qatar through the Salwa crossing and will connect Qatar to Bahrain, and from the Kingdom to the UAE to Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and then to Muscat through Sohar.


The Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs pointed out that the total cost of establishing the infrastructure of the project amounted to 15.4 billion dollars, including the link between Bahrain and the Kingdom through the proposed bridge between the two countries to link to the GCC railway project, and the total length of the route was estimated at 2117 km and connects Kuwait City through all GCC countries to Muscat, indicating that the speed of passenger trains is approximately 220 km / hour, and freight trains between 80-120 km / hour using diesel to generate electrical energy.

Operation in (2018)
With regard to the progress of the project, Al-Shibli explained that tangible progress has been made in the project and great strides have been made on the path of its implementation, as Member States, in coordination with the Secretariat-General, agreed on a work plan and timetable to complete the detailed engineering designs of the project during (2014) and it is expected to complete its implementation and operation during (2018), God willing, taking into account the latest developments and challenges that may face the implementation of the project and develop appropriate solutions to overcome them.

The Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs pointed out that the UAE has completed the construction of parts of the national railway projects and will start the construction of the GCC railway project, in addition to Saudi Arabia starting the construction of part of the GCC railway, which is also part of the national railway projects, while Qatar and Oman signed consultancy contracts to prepare engineering designs for the GCC railway project and their national railway projects, as well as consultancy contracts for project management, pointing out that the General Secretariat follows up with member states on the implementation of the project to ensure its integrated and consistent implementation. Technical specifications and standards
Al-Shibli stressed that the member states have achieved a number of achievements that included updating the GCC railway route and linking points between neighboring countries and signing the coordinates of the route on engineering maps, as well as unifying technical specifications and standards in line with international best practices in this regard, in addition to preparing a study by the General Corporation of King Fahd Bridge for the feasibility of linking the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the GCC railway project through a proposed bridge between the two countries parallel to King Fahd Bridge, which is expected to be completed during 2014, God willing, and a study is prepared to establish a Gulf Authority.