According to a new report by Kuwait Financial Centre, GCC nations are planning to invest USD 109 billion on rail projects in the next 10 years as officials look to solve traffic congestion issues.
Markaz said that road expansion projects will also continue with a total of USD 14.45 billion planned to 2019 but USD 3.8 billion worth of highways work has been cancelled due to the impact of the global economic crisis. Of the cancelled projects, USD 3 billion is from Saudi Arabia alone. It added that of the total USD 10.6 billion due to be invested, Kuwait projects make up close to 40%.
In its latest infrastructure report focusing on the roads and railways sector in the GCC, Markaz said investments were more likely to be made in rail links in a bid to decongest the region's roads.
The report said that investments in railway projects would increase dramatically in the region over the next decade. The supply side analysis of expected investments indicates that the GCC region could see investments totaling USD 109 billion based on the announced projects in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the pan GCC project.
Markaz said that these projects were crucial to relieve the stress on the road system in the GCC region. It added that already some of the countries in GCC have put forward plans for alternative transport systems such as the Dubai metro and Saudi Arabia's various rail plans. We believe that this might result in relieving some amount of stress from the road network. Also, the pan GCC railways planned at an overall cost of USD 60 billion will open lot of interesting opportunities for pan GCC travelers. Currently, the only option to travel across GCC is either by road or by air.
Markaz said that Dubai has recently launched its metro system but the GCC region’s growing population is increasing demand for transport infrastructure. It said that consequently, congestion on roads has increased. Growing trade has also contributed to the congestion. This has spurred the governments of several GCC countries to look at inter and intra city railways as a viable option. The majority of the countries in the GCC fared poorly when compared to developed nations on fatality rates on the roads.