Oman and the UAE have proposed forming a joint committee between the two countries to develop standardised specifications for the GCC railway project.
With representatives from the UAE’s Etihad Rail Company and Oman’s Ministry of Transport and Communications, the panel is expected to help Omani officials benefit from UAE’s experience and study laws passed by the Emirates in this regard, the ministry said.
“There must be close cooperation in developing appropriate criteria for standard specifications on both sides of the project as our trains will enter their lanes and vice-versa,” said the Omani Minister of Transport and Communications, Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Futaisi. 
The proposed project aims to connect by 2017 the six GCC member states with a 1940km regional rail network. The planned railway would extend from Kuwait’s border with Iraq to Salalah in southern Oman.
In October 2011, Etihad Rail awarded the $898m construction contract for civil and track works for the first phase of the project to a consortium led by Italy’s Saipem.
Other members of the group include Italy’s Tecnimont and the local Dodsal Engineering & Construction.
