Middle East & North Africa (Mena) region has $225 billion worth of rail, metro, tram and bus rapid transit (BRT) capital investment programme to 2030, a report said.

There are now 108 separate railway, metro, monorail, tram and BRT projects under bid, under design or under study in 14 Mena countries, said the report by Meed Projects.

More than 50 of them with a combined value of almost $140 billion are in the GCC, it said.
These projects will be highlighted at the Meed Mena Rail & Metro Summit which opens at the Beach Rotana Hotel in Abu Dhabi on October 29.

About 50 experts representing government and private businesses in the GCC, the wider Middle East and the world will address the event with over 300 delegates expected to attend the conference.
Saudi Arabia has the greatest potential with projects worth $50 billion due to be completed by 2025, Meed Projects show. Rail, metro, tram and BRT projects in Qatar worth more than $30 billion are scheduled to be finished by 2020, ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup Finals. The third biggest rail market is the UAE, where $27 billion worth of projects is due for completion by 2030.

Philippe Casgrain, vice president for Europe, the Middle East & Africa at Bombardier Transport, will open the summit with a presentation outlining the key challenges those involved delivering hundreds of billions of dollars of railway projects face in the Middle East region.

One of the biggest issues is pressure on the Middle East project supply chain and competing demands for steel, cement and skilled labour from other sectors of the region’s booming projects market.

About $2.2 trillion of projects are under bid, design or study, about half of this figure in the GCC. Meed Projects figures show that Saudi Arabia alone has a pipeline of more than $350 billion of projects with a value greater than $1,000 million.

In the rail, metro, tram and BRT projects sector, almost $40 billion of projects are under bid at present. But about $90 billion are under design and more than 75 per cent of projects under bid, design and study are due to be finished by 2020, the report said.

Joining the opening keynote session will be representatives of major urban rail, tram and BRT programmes. They include Dr Mohammed Montazeri, deputy managing director for planning and logistics at the Tehran Urban & Suburban Railway Company. Iran has more than $15 billion of major projects in the pipeline and two-thirds of this planned investment will be in the urban rail network of the Iranian capital by 2025. – TradeArabia News Service