A powerful panel of global industry leaders and Middle East government decision-makers will address the 10th Annual MENA Rail & Metro Summit at The Conrad Hotel in Dubai on 20-22 October 2014.
They include GCC Secretariat General transport Chief Ibrahim Al Sabti and GCC World Bank adviser Ramiz Al Assar who will provide an update about the ground-breaking multi-billion dollar GCC Railway, the most important rail project in Middle East history that starts operating in four years.
Dubai’s Road& Transport Authority (RTA) will provide an update about the Dubai metro and tram programme. Dubai Tram, the first tramway in Arabia, opens in November and plans are being developed for a vital extension of the existing Dubai Metro Red Line to the site of the World Expo 2020 which opens in October 2020.
Tehran Urban & Suburban Railway Company Deputy Managing Director Mohammed Montazeri will tell the conference about one of the world’s most ambitious urban railway programmes and the progress it’s made in the past two years.
The conference will hear about more than $150bn worth of major railway, metro and tram projects under way or planned in the Middle East and North Africa region and the opportunities this is creating for the global rail and engineering industry.
“More than $25bn-worth of rail contracts are expected to be awarded in 2014, with a similar amount likely in 2015,” says MEED Insight Head Ed James.
“These include packages for the Doha, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi metros, the second phase of the Etihad Rail project, the third phase of Line 3 of the Cairo metro and various tram projects in Algeria.”
Ed James will be delivering a keynote address at the 10th Annual MENA Rail & Metro Summit 2014.
Figures compiled by MEED show that plans call for the total length of MENA region railway track to be increased by 40,000 kilometres from under 29,000 kilometres at present. The largest railway programme is in Saudi Arabia where the aim is to build 10,000 kilometres of track compared with 2,415km at present in the form of the Riyadh-Dammam lines and the North-South Mineral Railway to Ras al-Khair.
More than one quarter of the new railway track is to be laid in the GCC, including the GCC railway from Kuwait City to Muscat in Oman. Plans for the regulation and operation of the railway are now being finalised.
Topics to be tackled at the conference include:
· Railway, metro and tram plans in the GCC and their implications for the regional transport network.
· Railway and mass urban transport plans in Algeria, Morocco and Egypt
· How the global construction industry is addressing the Middle East rail megaproject challenge
· New methods of financing major rail projects in the Middle East
The conversation about MENA rail and metro projects will be continued this October at the 10th Annual MENA Rail and Metro Summit in Dubai. Visit www.meedrailprojects.com for more information about the Summit and its star speaker line up.
For more information:
T: +971 4 8180 217
