UAE-Oman Hafeet Rail secures $1.5bn financing facility

Image credit: Etihad Rail

Hafeet Rail, the $2.5bn network project connecting the UAE and Oman, has secured a $1.5bn financing facility from a consortium of local, regional, and global lenders.

The funds will be drawn in both conventional and Islamic tranches in UAE dirhams and Omani rials.

The UAE bank consortium included Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Commercial Bank of Dubai, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Ajman Bank.

Banks from Oman were Ahli Bank, Bank Dhofar, Bank Muscat, National Bank of Oman, Oman Arab Bank, Ahli Islamic Bank, Bank Muscat’s Meethaq Islamic Banking unit, Bank Nizwa and Alizz Islamic Bank.

Regional and global banks included Jordan’s Arab Bank, the National Bank of Kuwait and the UK’s Standard Chartered Bank.

Hafeet Rail, a collaborative venture between Etihad Rail, Mubadala Investment Company, and Oman’s Asyad Group, is set to revolutionise travel between Abu Dhabi and Sohar. Freight trains will traverse the route at a remarkable speed of 120 km/hour, reducing travel time to just 100 minutes.

The network will accommodate passenger trains, each capable of carrying up to 400 passengers at a speed of 200 km/hour. A single freight train journey on the network is expected to transport more than 15,000 tonnes of cargo or approximately 270 standard containers.

Industries such as mining, iron and steel, agriculture and food, retail, e-commerce, and petrochemicals are poised to reap the benefits of this expanded capacity.

The Omani Emirati railway network project is the first link in a unified transport and logistics chain that will span the region, delivering mutually beneficial socioeconomic and competitive advantages.

The 238 km-long railway network – which will include 60 bridges, some towering up to 34 metres in height, and tunnels stretching 2.5 km in length – will link five major ports and various industrial and free zones across the two countries.

The mega project’s brand identity, Hafeet Rail, was derived from the scenic route of the railway line from Abu Dhabi’s Al Wathba area to the Omani city and port of Sohar.

Read: UAE-Oman railway Hafeet Rail enters implementation phase