SANAA, 6 March 2008 — Yemen is to be connected with its oil-rich Arab Gulf neighbors by the first regional railway network to be built in the Arabian Peninsula, reports said yesterday.
A meeting held this week in Riyadh between a Yemeni delegation and officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreed to prepare a feasibility study for a railway linking Oman with Yemen, the Al-Thawra daily said.
It said the 1,000 km line would link the Omani capital of Muscat with the eastern Yemeni border outpost of Shihen.
The proposed line would be part of a Gulf railway network that is planned to connect the six oil-rich Arabian Peninsula countries - Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Three international consultancies began preparing feasibility studies for the regional railway network last September under the supervision of the World Bank. The studies are expected to be finished by next September, the report said.
Yemen, which has long been agitating for full membership in the GCC that was established in 1981, was admitted to the group’s ministerial councils of education, health and social affairs and to the Gulf Football Cup in 2001. In 2006, Yemen received pledges of $4.7 billion in aid during a donor conference in London.
More than 50 percent of the pledged aid package was provided by the GCC countries as part of their efforts to give the impoverished country a much-needed economic boost to help it prepare its economy for potential integration with their economies.