The consortium conducting the feasibility study into the GCC rail project is calling on the GCC Secretariat to finalise the route of its network this month, or risk missing its deadline.

The GCC Secretariat has demanded that the feasibility study, which began in September 2007, is completed by October 2008. It has also requested that the study includes an additional 1,000-kilometre branch along the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, to the border with Yemen.

But the companies conducting the plan - Canadian group Canarail, French rail firm Systra, and Lebanese consultant Khatib & Alami - say the GCC has to formally confirm the extension to the route by the end of February if they are to complete a full technical study by October.

“We have told them that if they want the study done by October, they will have to agree to the route as soon as possible,” says Francois Lemieux, a spokesman for Canarail. “With the route now extending from Muscat to Yemen, we have a further 1,000km to study.”

The secretariat had been undecided over whether to halt the line at Muscat, but the railway route will now go all the way through Oman, passing through the port city of Salalah, and continue to the Yemeni border.

There is now also agreement among all GCC member states that the railway will fit into existing networks and that there will be no duplication of lines.

This means all domestic rail projects must be built to the same technical specifications so that the GCC line can link with them.

Projects already at the construction or planning stage across the six states - notably those in the UAE, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia - will need to be built with the same gauge to ensure compatibility with the pan-regional network.

Unusually, each country will have its own operator overseeing its particular stretch of track.

On the potentially contentious issue of how the project will be paid for, the study group is examining a range of financial proposals. However, the secretariat is understood to be aiming for each nation to shoulder the burden for its own stretch of track.

This would result in Saudi Arabia paying significantly more than its neighbours, although the extension to Yemen would result in the cost of the project to Oman soaring.

The study group is still working on an estimated cost of up to $2m for each kilometre of track (MEED 2:11:07).

The GCC is keen for the network to have a maximum speed of 220 kilometres-an-hour for passenger services.

The planned opening date of the network is 2010, which is the reason for the October deadline for the study.

Despite the many projects being developed at the region’s ports and airports, concerns have been mounting that the lack of an integrated rail network linking the six GCC countries is hindering intra-regional trade.