A $10.6 billion GCC rail network linking Kuwait with Muscat, through Bahrain, could be up and running by 2017.

Tracks of more than 2,000km will run from Kuwait City through Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE, before terminating in Oman, delegates heard at the Middle East Rail Projects 2009 conference in Abu Dhabi.

'Each country would also build extensions and spurs to serve industrial and transit centres,' GCC Railway Feasibility Study general manager David Lupton told the conference, organised by Meed. He said a final decision was expected in 2011, followed by two years of design and four years of construction.

'The GCC Secretariat is working on development of the next phase involving establishing a railway authority and undertaking detailed design,' said Lupton.

The committee has suggested five passenger trains a day between Kuwait City and Dubai, and eight additional trains from Bahrain and Qatar to Muscat.-TradeArabia News Service