Oxford Business talks about Oman railway plans

The British Oxford Business Group said in a report that the Sultanate of Oman has made progress in recent of railway infrastructure, leading to hopes that the national railway project will be revived. 

In a new report, it added that in July last year, the Oman’s government unveiled plans to construct a Muscat Metro, that will connect the districts of Ruwi and Muttrah with Muscat International Airport and the coastal town of Al Seeb to the north. 

The report said the government of Oman has long had plans to construct its own national railway network, a proposed 2100-km link starting at the UAE border and passing through Sohar and Muscat in the north, before linking up with the key port towns of Duqm and Salalah on the east coast. 

Elsewhere in the region, there is hope that the revitalization of the GCC Railway will reignite other dormant domestic rail plan, the report added.

The report stated, the development of the railway would significantly improve regional connectivity by reducing transportation times and coasts between major GCC cities and ports, improving trade flows across the bloc and attracting investment. 

It noted that the project was given a significant boost in December last year when leaders of the six GCC countries approved the establishment of the GCC Railways Authority, the body that is expected to oversee the coordination of the project. 

The report also said that the proposed project aims to connect all the six GCC countries via a 2,177 km railway. Starting in Kuwait City in the north, the rail line will pass through the coastal cities of Jubail and Dammam in Saudi Arabia, before heading through the Bahrain’s capital Manama and Doha, the capital of Qatar. The line would then cut back into Saudi Arabia before moving to the UAE, where it will pass through Major cities Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Fujairah, before reaching its terminal station in Muscat, the capital of Oman.