China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation has won a contract to supply 240 covered wagons for the first phase of the UAE’s $11bn Etihad Rail project.

The wagons will be used to transport granulated sulphur.

Etihad Rail awarded the first rolling stock contract in August. US-based Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) won the contract to design and manufacture seven heavy-haul freight locomotives. They will be delivered by 2012 (MEED 31:7:11).

The railway is forecast to transport up to 50 million tonnes of freight and 16 million passengers a year over the next 20 years.

In April, a US-based group of Aecom with Parsons International won the project management consultancy contract for the first phase.

Aecom-Parsons will also be involved in the supervision of the entire first phase of development, including testing and commissioning, as well as a defect liability period once the project is complete. Part of the role is to supervise the preliminary engineering work and contracts for stages one and two.

The UK’s Atkins will carry out preliminary engineering for the entire UAE railway. The first phase of the railway involves building a 265-kilometre track between the port of Ruwais and gas fields at Shah and Habshan. The first part this will involve building the line from Ruwais to Habshan, which will be able to transport 10,000 tonnes a day (t/d) of granulated sulphur. This will increase to 20,000 t/d when the line is completed to Shah.