UPDATE 1-Qatar signs railway study deal with Deutsche Bahn
August 28th, 2008 | by admin |(Adds details, background)
By John Irish
DUBAI, Aug 27 (Reuters) – German railway operator DeutscheBahn [DBN.UL], which is planning an initial public offering, hassigned a deal to help design a multi-billion dollar rail networkin the Gulf Arab state of Qatar.
Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co, a unit of thecountry’s sovereign wealth fund, said on Wednesday the project’spartners would develop the blueprint for integrating Qatar’splanned railways into a national and regional network.
Under its remit, Deutsche Bahn will provide technical andfinancial assessment studies, Qatari Diar said in a statement.
Qatar is planning a high-speed rail link between the capitalDoha and neighbouring Bahrain via one of the world’s longestbridges, nationwide freight and passenger services as part of awider Gulf Arab rail network, and a metro in the capital city.
Qatar is the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied naturalgas. With Gulf countries witnessing annual population growth ofbetween 5 to 10 percent, cities are increasingly facingcongestion, forcing governments to spend on improvinginfrastructure.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups the six regionalstates, is working on a feasibility study with the World Bank tocreate a $2.5 billion pan-Gulf rail network.
Dubai is expected to complete the first phase of a two-line$4.4 billion metro by September 2009. Other Gulf citiesincluding Riyadh, Mecca, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait are also planningrail systems.