DUBAI, 23 December 2004 — The UAE and the State of Qatar have agreed to build a causeway linking the two countries that is expected to cut down driving time to four to five hours from the current 12 to 14 hours.
The agreement was announced on Tuesday at the conclusion of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit held in Bahrain.
GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Bin Hamad Al Attiyah, who announced the agreement, did not give a timeframe for the project. A cost estimate was also not available.
At present, road traffic between the UAE and Qatar has to pass through Saudi Arabia for about 125 kilometers passing through Al Ghuwaifat and Al Bat’ha in Saudi Arabia before entering Qatar at Salwa. The road is mostly two-lane single carriageway and embraces the coastline for several stretches.
The proposed causeway will link Sila near the UAE-Saudi border and Doha.
According to officials here, traffic between the UAE and Qatar has steadily been mounting and hence the relevance of the project. They say that it takes an average of journey time 12 hours from Abu Dhabi to Doha and the causeway will cut it down to four hours.
Another advantage, residents say, is that skirting Saudi Arabia will allow women to drive all the way between the UAE and Qatar since women are not permitted to drive in the Kingdom.
Qatar and Bahrain are planning to build a causeway linking the two countries and this would be a further boost to traffic among the GCC countries. Work on the project is expected to begin soon. Bahrain and Qatar have already invited international bids to build the $1.8 billion causeway.
The 45-kilometer causeway will link the west coast of Qatar near the Zubarah fortress with the east coast of Bahrain, south of Manama. The link will include a number of bridges combined with roads constructed on embankments and will be a natural extension of the King Fahd Causeway that connects Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, thus linking the entire region.
Original plans call for the completion of the project by the year 2006. It will be the world’s longest fixed link between two countries.
Plans for Kuwait-Muscat Rail Link Take Shape
Detailed plans are to be drawn up for a 2,000-kilometer railway line from the Iraq-Kuwait border to the Arabian Sea after Gulf leaders gave their go-ahead this week, project coordinator Hamed Khajah told AFP yesterday.
The $5.7 billion line would run from Kuwait to Oman, serving the other four member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — en route, he said.
The next stage will see the preparation of detailed technical studies, the selection of a lead consultant and the drawing up of a timetable, said Khajah.
It is expected that the project will take two years of detailed planning and another four years to build.
In the longer term, planners hope it will offer connections to Turkey and Europe beyond. Even before that, they hope to see connections to Iran and Syria through Iraq, if the security situation there improves.
Kuwaiti Communications Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Sabah is to discuss the project during a visit to Iran next month, said Khajah, who is himself an official in Sheikh Ahmad’s ministry.
Rail has found new favor among Gulf states, long largely dependent on road and air.
Saudi Arabia, which currently has just a single line between Riyadh and Dammam in the Eastern Province, plans several major new lines linking its main cities.
Kuwait is setting up a railway company to construct a domestic network.
