Etihad Rail, the developer of the UAE’s planned national railway network, has received its first batch of wagons to be used on phase one of the project, which will link Abu Dhabi’s gasfields in Shah and Habshan to the Port of Ruwais to transport granulated sulphur.

Construction on this initial phase has already begun, and the first trains are expected to run on the Habshan to Ruwais route within the year. Phase 1 is set to be fully completed by 2014.

In 2011, Etihad signed a deal with China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation to supply 240 covered wagons for the transport of granulated sulphur. A further contract was signed between Etihad Rail and the US-based company ElectroMotive Diesel for the design and manufacture of seven heavy haul freight locomotives.

Stage two of the rail project, which will connect Mussafah Port, to Abu Dhabi’s new Khalifa Port and Dubai’s Jebel Ali port, is still being tendered.

Bids for two civil works packages and the systems contract were submitted towards the end of 2012. Awards are expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2013, when bids for the outstanding packages still out on tender have been handed in.