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23/MAR/2009
UAE National Railway system to
link all 7 Emirates approved
The network, which would see a double track rail service built from Ruwais in Abu Dhabi to Fujairah, was approved by the Ministerial Council for Services, WAM said on Sunday.
The council chaired by Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs, passed a federal law setting up the Union Railways Company, whose major business will be rail transportation in the country.
Tenders for the project will be offered by 2015, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Public Works, has said recently.
Details of the cost of the network have yet to be released - but some sources said the figure could reach more than $3billion (Dh11b).
It will be done in two phases. The first phase of the project will focus mainly on creating an industrial railway, which will take 5 years to complete.
The second phase will be a passenger rail line that links all seven emirates. When the project is completed, there would be around 1,000 km of track running from the coast to the Saudi border.
Ministry of Public Works must look at ways to ease traffic congestion on Dubai- Sharjah road by building more roads and fast-tracking the trans-emirates rail network, demanded members of the Federal National Council (FNC) recently.
Train service will help to ease traffic flow as it would reduce the number of cars on the road, said the lawmakers. Roads in the northern emirates are so crowded that the problem has become unbearable, they added.
Shaikh Hamdan agreed proposed railway would not only ease traffic congestion, but also reduce the cost of road maintenance and other projects.
The minister said Dubai's metro system is not connected to the national rail network.
"Studies for the trans-Emirates rail network has been completed and a body has been created to make policies and regulations for the rail transport in the country," he told the legislature.
Lawmakers said with massive industrialisation and investment in downstream petrochemical projects being undertaken by the UAE, the country is expected to witness a sharp growth in manufacturing activities in the coming years.
This will require a speedy and efficient transportation and distribution network, in which the rail will play a vital role, they said.
Once completed, the network will link up with similar projects in neighbouring GCC countries.
In Dubai the route will pass through Jebel Ali - but according to the current plans it will not be linked to the metro's red line, which will stop there.
The network would ultimately be connected to the planned GCC railway network whose construction is scheduled to start in 2010.
The GCC railway network will run for 1,000km near the Gulf coast, extending from Muscat in Oman to Kuwait City and passing through the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia at speeds of up to 180kph.
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