The Council of Ministers in Saudi Arabia has given the go-ahead to implement the $25 billion Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) railway project, which aims to link the six GCC countries through a 2,117-km-long railway network, news reports have said.

“The Cabinet approved a request from the Transport Ministry to prepare an engineering blueprint for the railway and follow-up implementation of the project,” the Culture and Information Minister, Mr Abdul Aziz Khoja, was quoted by the Arab News daily as saying.

Mr Khoja said the Cabinet meeting chaired by the country’s king, Mr Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, instructed the Finance Ministry to allocate the necessary funds for the railway linking Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, which will be completed in 2017.

The Cabinet also decided that a working team should be set up at the ministry to supervise the design and implementation of the Saudi part of the project.

According to a GCC source quoted by the newspaper, work on the railway would start in 2012 after the completion of engineering studies.

The project would change transportation patterns in the GCC. Train services across the six GCC states will facilitate movement and travel of GCC citizens as well as expatriates and boost regional trade.

Beginning from Kuwait, the railway will pass by the eastern Saudi city of Dammam, where it will connect with Bahrain through a bridge parallel to the King Fahd Causeway, before reaching Qatar, via Salwa, while another line will connect Saudi Arabia with the UAE. It will run through Abu Dhabi and Al-Ain to reach Oman through Sahar and Muscat. It will also connect Qatar and Bahrain through a bridge.

Land acquisition costs for the project are estimated at $3.1 billion, while the cost of purchasing trains and locomotives is pegged at $1.8 billion. Trains on the line will run at a speed of 350 km/hour, the report said.

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