Bahrain’s Minister of Transport has announced that it has appointed five firms to undertake a study of a project to build a new rail bridge running alongside the King Fahd Causeway.

According to Bahrain News Agency, the project will be used to link ports in both countries as part of the wider GCC railway.It will also link to the proposed causeway between Qatar and Bahrain that will have both road and rail routes.

The minister said that that Bahrain was working with Saudi Arabia to develop systems and procedures for sending goods along the route, and for providing cargo and warehousing space to improve transport costs between the pair.

He added that the GCC rail network is set to run a total of 2,177km from Kuwait to Dammam in Saudi Arabia and on through Bahrain to Qatar. A land link will also run from Dammam to Qatar amd on through the UAE to Oman.

The GCC’s leaders have set a provisional date of 2018 for the rail link to operate.In February, Arab News said that private sector firms could be invited to form consortiums to develop the bridge using private finance under a build, operate, transfer model.

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