A 2018 target to open a transnational rail network in the Arabian peninsula, linking the Gulf countries, is unrealistic, the UAE’s infrastructure minister said.
“We know that 2018 is not realistic. We’ve asked the ministers to come up with a realistic programme,” Abdulla al-Nuaimi, UAE minister of infrastructure development and chairman of the Federal Transport Authority, said.
The 2,100 kilometre passenger and cargo railway, valued at $30 billion in a 2011, has suffered from technical and bureaucratic delays since its announcement last decade, with the completion date already posponed to 2018 from a year earlier.
According to Abdulla al-Nuaimi, the plans have not been modified. Gulf transport ministers will meet next month in Riyadh for further discussions, he added.
Share on:
