Oman Railway Company (Oman Rail) has set-out a tentative plan to build a 605km domestic rail line that will carry heavy freight from three locations in the Dhofar governorate to a central location, which will then link to a separate rail line that runs to Duqm Port, from where the mineral cargoes will be exported to international markets.

This line will become an added sector to Segment 4 of Oman’s National Railway Network, on which the preliminary design was completed in 2015, according to a local media report citing Oman Rail.

It is understood that the design of the proposed mineral line will be part of the scope of the multifunctional consultancy services contract, which Oman Rail tendered in October.

The line is envisaged to connect with Segment 4A, which under the current plan will terminate in Amal. Amal will serve as the hub of the mineral line that will branch out to Shuwaymiyah, Manji and Thamrait. From Amal, a separate line will run to Duqm Port.

The indicative lengths of the mineral line branches are as follows:

• Duqm Port to Amal junction (295km)
• Amal to Shuwaymiyah (40km)
• Amal to Manji (70km)
• Amal junction to Thamrait (200km)

Shuwaymiyah, Manji and Thamrait are understood to hold rich reserves of limestone and gypsum. The proposed mineral line will seek to optimise the use of the rail network for use in heavy haul bulk railway operations. “The project will be ‘built for purpose’ and underpinned by heavy haul standards and traffic control systems,” the report said.

The planned line will be subject to a sturdier set of construction standards when compared with the standards already specified for the wider national rail network which will be integrated with the GCC Rail network.

While the planned Oman National Railway / GCC Railway Network, to which the mineral line will eventually link up to, will be a double track network, the mineral line is proposed to be a single track system. It will have a maximum axle-load specs of 40 to 4 tonnes versus 32.4 tonnes set for the regional railway

Freight trains running on the mineral line will have a top speed of 80 kilometres-per-hour (kph), which is slower compared with the 120kph set for freight trains that will operate on the regional railway.