12 firms to be qualified by August 31 for Kuwait national rail project
500KM-long network to be constructed in two phases by 2018
RELATED ARTICLES: Slowdown probable on Etihad Rail development | Contractors quit bidding on Kuwait airport project due to ‘tough’ requirements | GCC rail track plan revealed
Kuwait’s Ministry of Communications has set 31 August as the deadline for qualifying at least 12 companies for the national railway project tender.
Expected to be constructed by 2018, the 500km-long network will be built in two phases, according to Mansour Al-Bader, assistant undersecretary for transport sector. The Kuwaiti rail network, when complete, will be linked with the unified GCC rail network.
Companies applying to participate in the Kuwait’s 200km-long national metro network project will also be appointed by the Ministry. The metro network will run across the country through 90 stations, nine of which will be underground and the remaining 81 stations above the ground, Al-Bader said.
The Ministry will soon organise a conference call with the GCC’s communications ministers to “mull the latest developments related to the GCC railway network,” Al-Bader added.
In January 2014, minister of public works and chairman of the UAE’s National Transport Authority (NTA), Dr Abdulla Behaif Al Nuaimi said the planned unified GCC rail is currently unsynchronised, as each member country has achieved only varying levels of their completion targets.
“We had hoped the GCC network would be up and running by 2018,” Al Nuaimi said at the time. “However, at a meeting last year, we realised that some GCC members will possibly face delays in completion of their rail networks.
“The concern for us, then, was whether to hold-off our development activities based on theirs,” he added.
