Transport Kuwait awards railway contract to Turkish company By Neil Halligan January 24, 2025, 4:08 PM Getty Images/Unsplash+ The railway will connect Kuwait to Saudi Arabia in the northern area of the GCC rail project and is scheduled to be completed by 2030 Kuwait to Saudi Arabia link Turkey’s Proyapi contracted Detailed design commissioned Kuwait has awarded the tender for the first phase of its plan to build 111 kilometres of railway. The Central Agency for Public Tenders awarded the contract to Turkish engineering and consulting company Proyapi to carry out a study and detailed design to prepare tender documents for the railway. The first phase is expected to take 12 months, after which the tenders for the construction phase will be issued, the tenders agency said. The railway is scheduled to be completed by 2030. It will connect Kuwait to Saudi Arabia in the northern area of the GCC railway project. Kuwait’s planned passenger station will be located in the Al Shadadiya area, close to the international airport and will cover two square kilometers, the tenders agency said. The GCC railway project is 2,117km in length and will link key cities in each of the six member states. Jasem Albudaiwi, the GCC’s secretary general, said a survey carried out by the organisation shows that the network is expected to transport eight million passengers and 95 million tonnes of cargo by 2045. Lebanese officials promote revival of rail network Morocco to invest $9.5bn in rail network projects Etihad Rail train to link Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 30 minutes Many sections of the GCC rail project are starting to come together. Hafeet Rail, formerly Oman and Etihad Rail Company, announced in October it had secured funding of $1.5 billion from a consortium of regional and global banks for the Omani-Emirati 238km railway network. This $2.5 billion Omani-Emirati project is the first link in a unified regional transport and logistics chain and will link five major ports and various industrial and free zones across the two Gulf neighbours. Authorities from Abu Dhabi and Dubai also formally unveiled plans on Thursday for a high-speed passenger rail link that will reduce travel between the two cities to 30 minutes.