The joint venture (JV) Hafeet Rail has been awarded three contracts to build a 303 km railway line between the port of Sohar in Oman and Abu Dhabi. The contracts for the project with a total budget of around €2.8 billion (US$3 billion) were signed on 23rd April 2024, and at the same time the JV founded in September 2022 between Oman Rail and Etihad Rail was renamed Hafeet Rail. The JV will also take over the maintenance of the railway line between Sohar and the UAE's existing national railway network. Under the first contract, a partnership agreement was signed with Mubadala Investment Company, a state-owned holding group from Abu Dhabi. The second contract is a civil engineering works contract worth approximately €1.2 billion to a JV of Trojan Construction Group and Galfar Engineering and Contracting. Under the third contract, a consortium of Siemens Mobility and Hassan Allam Construction has been awarded the design, supply, implementation and integration of telecommunication and power supply systems as well as the provision of ETCS Level 2 desert-ready train control equipment. Passenger trains on the Sohar – Abu Dhabi line are to travel at 200 km/h and enable a journey time of one hour and 40 minutes, while freight trains are to reach speeds of up to 120 km/h.
