Etihad Rail has announced that beginning 2021 it has started the tracklaying works for the Al Ruwais – Ghuweifat rail section at the UAE border with Saudi Arabia. The project is part of the Phase Two of UAE rail network development.
The construction works for this section started at the beginning of 2020.
Etihad Rail has launched the construction works of Package A as part of the second stage of the railway network, a 139-km railway line from Ghuweifat on the UAE border with Saudi Arabia to Ruwais, where it connects the first stage of the network.
The works are performed by a joint venture between the China State Construction Engineering Corporation and South Korea’s SK Engineering and Construction. The contract for the Package A was signed in 2019 and has a value of AED 1.5 billion (USD 408.4 million). Under the contract, the joint venture is responsible for the design and construction of rail infrastructure for 139 km of rail line. It includes earth works, the construction of the bridges, tunnels, crossings and track-laying works and the creation of the railway link with the first phase of the network.
Etihad Rail has been signed the contracts for the creation of the second phase of the network. The contract, part of Packages B and C for the line linking Khalifa Port, Khalifa Industrial City (Kizad), and Jebel Ali Port was signed with China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd. and Ghantoot Transport & General Contracting Company. The contracts cover 310 km of lines of which 216 km for Tarif – Saih Shuaib rail line (Package B) and 94 km for Jebel Ali – Sharjah railway (Package C).
The Package D contract for the 145-km connection from Dubai to Fujairah was awarded to a joint venture between China Railway Construction Corporation, CRCC, and National Projects and Construction, NPC.
The second phase of the railway network in United Arab Emirates includes the Al Ruwais – Ghuweifat rail section which, together with the other railway lines will create a network of 605 km from Ghuweifat on the border with Saudi Arabia to Fujairah on the east coast. The network will connect the Emirates via Abu Dhabi, KIZAD, Khalifa Port, Jebel Ali Port, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah on the East Coast. This phase will link at Ruwais the first phase of the network totalling 264 km linking the gas fields at Shah and Habshan to the port of Ruwais where granulated sulphur is processed for export. With the railway link between the two networks, the United Arab Emirates will have rail connections between the major industrial ports and trading centres of the country.
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