Oman Rail segment remains on hold

04 July 2016

Extension for Oman rail offers expires

The six-month extension on the validity of offers submitted by bidders on the first segment of Oman’s 2,135-kilometre national railway project is understood to have expired while the project remains on hold.

“There are no new developments…the Client seems to be in line with the Abu Dhabi decision taken six months ago,” a source familiar with the project tells MEED.

Etihad Rail, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, suspended the tender for the second phase of  the rail in January. The original scope of the second segment involves building rail lines in Abu Dhabi emirate between Ghuweifat and Ruwais, a line to Jebel Ali in Dubai and a link to Al-Ain, where it would link up with the Omani railway.

Segment 1 of the Omani railway was to run 207km between Sohar Port and Buraimi on the sultanate’s border with the UAE,

Construction on the first segment of Oman Rail was to have started in the last quarter of 2015, with completed date originally set for 2018.

Oman Rail shortlisted three bidders in July 2015 for the first segment. They included:

In May, Oman’s Transport and Communications Ministry confirmed it will delay its national railway project as a result of what it perceives as the stoppage of work in other national railway schemes in the GCC.

The recent extraordinary meeting between the GCC transport and communications ministers did not offer in a new timeline for the construction of the GCC railway, although the ministers said it should remain a priority. The GCC rail originally set a 2018 completion date.

 

 

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