A 350-km national railway network is being planned by the UAE to ease traffic congestion, a report said.

The track will link Abu Dhabi to the east coast and will eventually be connected with the proposed GCC-wide railway network, the Gulf News report quoted Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Government Sector Development as saying.

The project is being studied now and when it is finalised it will be presented to the government, Al Mansouri said in the report.

It said he did not give an estimate of the cost or the time-frame for the project.

"It is one of the strategic plans of the UAE government to create a railway system for both passengers and cargo. It will ease a lot of the trucking congestion," the minister said.

According to French train manufacturer Alstom, which is bidding for projects in the Gulf, the planned $3-billion (Dh11 billion), trans-emirate rail system will be 700 km long and connect Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah to Ghewaifat through Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

A consortium, led by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is currently building a Dh15.5-billion urban rail network in Dubai.