By Haseeb Haider www.khaleejtimes.com
An estimated $11 billion, 1,500-kilometre railway project being planned across the UAE, will connect ports in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and boost the country’s logistics industry, a top official said.
“Both Abu Dhabi Ports Company and Dubai Ports have confirmed they will be rail connected,” Richard Bowker, chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi-based Union Railway, told a three-day Mena Rail Project 2010 conference here on Tuesday.
He said that the linking Jebel Ali to Khalifa Port in Taweelah is very important, not only for the project but also for the nation’s logistics as a whole. The first phase of the project will be a 270-kilometre freight rail line linking Abu Dhabi’s Shah sour gas field to Ruwais on the Arabian Gulf coast, to transport granulated sulfur for export.
He said that the railway will this week open pre-qualification documents for the main engineering, procurement and construction contract covering that route, and added that it is working on pre-qualification of bidders for the Shah-Habshan line construction project.
