Oman Rail Company (Oman Rail) is seeking consultancy firms to bid by 8 December for a multifunctional consultancy services contract on its national railway scheme.

The company indicated multiple consultants will be awarded the contract, which would have a duration of two years with a possible one-year extension.

The areas of consultancy sought include:

• Operation and maintenance
• Infrastructure
• Rolling stock
• Management
• Railway facilities
• Mass transit system
• Auxiliary services (ports and mines)

The tender indicates that Oman is planning a new transport and logistics infrastructure by building a modern railway network, which will have both passenger and freight lines, with a future provision for a high-speed railway. The network is to connect the centres of population and growth drivers of Oman and will “also” be part of the GCC railway network.

TIt also maintains that the scheme will provide connectivity to the GCC states through the UAE at Al-Buraimi and Khatmat Milahah and that the network will connect Yemen with other GCC states in future. 

In February, Oman’s Transport Minister Mohammed al-Futaisi was understood to have told local media that the sultanate was considering focusing on constructing a domestic rail system instead of connecting to the planned GCC rail network. The new tender seems to indicate the original plan has been retained.

Oman Rail met with contractors in early October to affirm that they are not abandoning the scheme, whose first segment was put on hold a few months after the UAE’s Etihad Rail announced cancelling the tender for the second phase of its railway in January.

A source who attended the meeting told MEED there was a general indication that Oman Rail would be prioritising the rail line that would link to the port in Duqm in the south-eastern part of the sultanate although no definite timeline for the tender was set.

Oman Rail prequalified 17 engineering, procurement and contracting (EPC) contractors for several segments of the railway including the Gabah-Duqm line in September 2015.