Rail link to UAE will supercharge Oman’s port city of Sohar

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The planned Oman-Etihad railway project is due to give the sultanate’s northern city of Sohar a significant trade boost.

The railway line, which will run from Sohar to Abu Dhabi, will provide Omani businesses with direct access to the UAE’s global connectivity links, helping local firms reduce supply chain costs and diversify exports.

The $3 billion railway will be 303 km long. It has been renamed Hafeet Rail, after the Jabal Hafeet mountain on the border between Oman and the UAE, and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2027.

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The railway is welcome news for Sohar, a port city home to industries worth more than $12 billion, including steel production and solar power.

Sohar has been hit hard by increased export and shipping insurance costs over the past five years. Road transport costs to the UAE from the city have also risen since pre-pandemic days, a hangover from Covid-related rises in truck and trailer insurance.

The Oman-UAE railway will also play a crucial role in stimulating manufacturing activities in Sohar, which is home to the largest industrial zone in the country, ahead of Muscat, Salalah and Duqm. 

Naturally Oman is keen to pull in more international investors, and a direct train route to the UAE will make Sohar’s manufacturing bases more attractive.

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The railway will also be a boon for direct trade between Oman and the UAE. The volume of trade between the two countries hit around OR4.19 billion ($10.9 billion) through the first nine months of 2022, making the sultanate one of the UAE’s top global non-oil trade partners

Earlier this year, the two signed deals worth $35 billion, ranging from green energy and agriculture to fisheries. The agreements will help strengthen ties between the two countries and reduce regional dependence on non-GCC imports. 

The UAE will likely take advantage of the railway link to speed up imports of fresh food from Oman.

A significant proportion of the sultanate’s food exports – fish, meat, milk, fruit and vegetables – originate from the northern Batinah region, where Sohar is the largest city.

Trucks can take around 10 hours by road to reach their UAE destinations

The new railway will provide a speedier way for Batinah farms and fisheries to export their produce in larger volumes, helping to support local livelihoods.

Currently heavy goods vehicles are the only way to transport goods from Sohar to the UAE. Trucks can take around 10 hours by road to reach their UAE destinations, hampered by long queues at the border checkpoints.

In contrast the freight train from Sohar will take less than 50 minutes to reach the Abu Dhabi towns of Al Ain and Al Buraimi.

In addition, since the Hafeet Rail trains will also carry passengers, tourism between the two countries is expected to receive a huge boost. According to Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, visitor numbers travelling between the two countries reached 823,000 in 2023, 6 percent up on the year before.

The Sohar-UAE railway will cement ties between the two countries, create more business ventures, increase employment, and boost bilateral logistics infrastructure.

Saleh Al-Shaibany is a journalist and lecturer, and CEO of AlSafa Press & Publishing