DUBAI, 10 December 2003 — There can be no Gulf-wide railway network until GCC states set up internal networks first, Khaled Al-Yahya, president of the Saudi Railways Organization (SRO), said yesterday.
The Kingdom’s own rail network will be completed in five years’ time, he told Arab News on the sidelines of the Gulf Traffic and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Rail 2003 Congress here.
He expressed hope that the five other Gulf Cooperation Council countries would have completed their networks by then and be ready for the proposed inter-GCC rail network.
“We have to be realistic and recognize that before connecting a group of countries with a rail network we have to have internal networks in place,” Al-Yahya said.
The railway chief said the private sector would be heavily involved in the Kingdom’s railway on a “build, operate and transfer” basis.
There was a huge amount of interest in the project from international investors, he said. Likely investors include Saudi and international construction companies, equipment suppliers, shipping lines and rail operating companies.
In June 2002, the Saudi Economic Council approved an implementation program for SRO privatization and authorized it to conduct a selection process for financial, technical and legal advisers for the project.
Al-Yahya said the overall cost of SRO projects could not be determined at this stage “because we are still studying various international technologies” for it. “We will be using the best,” he added.
