Transport ministers across the GCC wil be meeting in Doha next week to discuss, among others, the timeline for the implementation of the GCC rail.

Input from the ministers will be used to assess whether the original timeline will be retained or whether adjustments will be made, according to the UAE Public Works Minister Abdullah Belhaif al-Naimi, speaking to MEED on the sidelines of the MENA Rail and Metro Summit.

Al-Naimi said that the meeting will help Etihad Rail decide whether the UAE rail’s link with Oman will be retained in the planned phase that will be completed in 2018, or whether the link will be deferred for construction at a later date.

“We will have to decide the [implementation] pace in coherence with the rest of the GCC states. It is not a question of who finishes their rail project first,” said Al-Naimi.

Following prolonged negotiations and a change in the design, including dropping a link to Al-Ain that would connect to the Omani rail network, phase 2 of the Eithad Rail project was retendered earlier this year.

The original scope for phase 2 involves building rail lines in Abu Dhabi emirate between Ghuweifat and Ruwais, a link to Al-Ain, and a line to Jebel Ali in Dubai. It also included a branch line between Mussafah and Industrial City Abu Dhabi.

The dropping of the link to Oman in phase 2 has been downplayed by Oman Rail, which is also understood to be currently in negotiations with two Italian-led consortiums for the first segment of its national railway project.Construction work for the Sohar-Buraimi rail segment is expected to begin by end 2015.