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Oman signs $35 mn railway consultancy deal with Italferr—ONA | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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File photo—Oman’s Sultan Qaboos Bin Sa’id Al Sa’id salutes during the military parade in the capital Muscat, marking the Sultanate’s 43th National Day, on November 18, 2013. (AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED MAHJOUB)


File photo—Oman's Sultan Qaboos Bin Sa'id Al Sa'id salutes during the military parade in the capital Muscat, marking the Sultanate’s 43th National Day, on November 18, 2013. (AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED MAHJOUB)

Oman’s Sultan Qaboos Bin Sa’id Al Sa’id salutes during the military parade in the capital, Muscat, marking the Sultanate’’s 43th National Day, on November 18, 2013. (AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED MAHJOUB)

Dubai, Reuters—Oman has signed a 13.6 million rial (35.3 million US dollar) deal with Italferr, the Italian state railways engineering firm, for consultancy services on the initial design of its multi-billion dollar railway project, its state news agency ONA said.

A pre-qualification tender for railway construction will hopefully be launched soon, Minister of Transport and Communications Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Futaisi said in a statement carried by ONA.

“The first contractor will be awarded the actual work early in 2015,” he said, adding that field preparations had started including geographic and geological surveys.

The state-funded, 1,395 mile (2,244 kilometer) rail network—the country’s first—would link the desert town of Buraimi, bordering the United Arab Emirates, to six major settlements in Oman including the industrial city of Sohar and the port of Salalah, seen as the region’s future gateway to Africa.

Officials have estimated the eventual cost of the project at around 15 billion dollars. It would ultimately connect to a planned rail network across the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and eventually to neighboring Yemen.

Oman, which exports modest amounts of oil and will face challenges in financing its state budget and generating employment for its citizens in coming years, has said it expects its railway network to be fully operational by 2018.

The railway could help to diversify Oman’s economy beyond oil and gas by facilitating trade and industrial projects, while increasing the geopolitical security of Gulf Arab states by giving them a major trade route bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.