On January 14, 2026, the major transportation connectivity plan in the Gulf region, which had been stalled for nearly two decades, made substantial progress. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are working together to promote a key cross-border land route project, which is not only an important infrastructure cooperation after the recovery of bilateral relations, but also a landmark project in the process of regional economic integration. The process of the project from conception, shelving to restart reflects the changing geopolitical situation in the region, and now, a planned 40 kilometer two-way highway is becoming a real link to reconnect the economic pulse of the Gulf countries.

The project has entered a new stage of engineering

The key progress made this time is on the Qatar side of the project. Qatar Railway Company has officially appointed Egis, a well-known French engineering consulting company, to provide professional engineering consulting services for the Qatar UAE Railway and Highway Connection Project. It is reported that Egis won the bid in July 2025 with a price of approximately 38 million US dollars, defeating the only other bidder - Canadian engineering giant Atkins Reilis. This appointment marks the official entry of the project into the substantive pre planning and design phase led by a professional engineering team, laying the technical foundation for subsequent detailed design and construction.

UAE side synchronous rapid promotion

At the same time, work on the UAE side is also accelerating at the other end of the channel. The Western Link project, which is being promoted by the UAE National Railways, has entered the advanced procurement stage. The project aims to construct a route that extends from Abu Dhabi to islands near the Gulf of Qatar, with a total length of approximately 40 kilometers. The project adopts an early contractor participation model, and two international joint contracting groups have been preliminarily selected to participate in the deepening of the next stage of the plan. They are the consortium of Archiodon Company in Greece and local partners, and the consortium of China Harbour Engineering Co., Ltd. and local partners. This indicates that the project has attracted excellent engineering forces from around the world and entered the stage of demonstration and planning for specific implementation paths. Keywords: traffic news, traffic news information

Connecting areas across obstacles

The construction of this channel carries geopolitical and economic significance beyond the project itself. As early as 2005, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar had planned to jointly build a cross sea route to bypass the current situation of crossing Saudi territory by land and significantly shorten travel time, but it was ultimately shelved due to complex issues involving Saudi territorial waters. The regional diplomatic crisis that began in 2017 has caused all cooperation projects to come to a standstill. With the signing of the 2021 Al Ula Declaration, diplomatic relations have been restored, regional cooperation has resumed, and the planning of this channel has also been revitalized. The new plan plans for a two-way two lane road from Ras Jumeirah in the United Arab Emirates to the ferry terminal on Makasib Island, which will be connected to Qatar by ferry in the future. Its construction will not only directly facilitate the exchange of personnel and goods between the two countries, but also serve as a symbol of regional reconciliation and deep integration, and will have a profound impact on the future connectivity pattern of the entire Gulf region. (This article is from the official website www.seetao.com of Jian Dao. Reproduction without permission is prohibited, otherwise it will be prosecuted. Please indicate Jian Dao website+original link when reprinting.) Jian Dao website traffic column editor/Gao Xue