Importance of Railway Engineering in Oman's Transport Sector

This report analyzes the importance of railway engineering in Oman's transport sector. It discusses the need for transport infrastructure, the significance of the railway project, and its impact on traffic safety and sustainable transportation.

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Railway Engineering
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Abstract

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1.0 Introduction
The objective of this study is to analyze the transport sector of Oman and determine the
importance of railways in the country. The current transport sector of Oman does not include any
railways system but a project has already been authorized for building a railway network along
the coastal region of the country. The estimated length of the railway network is around 2135 km
and will include both passenger lines and freight corridor. Currently, the Sultanate of Oman does
not have a suitable transport infrastructure and all the in-land transport depends on the road
networks that provide connectivity to various important parts of the country. Oman mainly
depends on water and air transport for commercial logistics and hence, it is largely important to
develop a new transport infrastructure for in-land movement of people and goods.
In this report, the need for transportation infrastructure in Oman has been analyzed and
suitable recommendations have been provided.
2.0 Railways in Oman
2.1 Need for Transport Infrastructure for the Country’s Progress
Although Oman is a massively advanced country, it requires further progress and
transport is expected to play a major role in the same. Currently, the transport infrastructure in
the country is not very well developed in terms of in-land movement. The only mode of transport
inside the land is road transport that consists of a number of intercity highways (Samir, Shahbaz
and Akhtar 2018). However, expect the connectivity between the major cities, there are not many
roads for greater connectivity with the smaller towns especially the inner parts of the country in
and around the desert. The road network most developed along the coastline and is utilized for
passenger transport and transport of oil and other goods to and from the port. Air transport is also
popular for cargo transfer with other countries. For the inland transport of goods, trucks and
tankers are used that are slow and often take huge amount of time to travel between cities that are
separated by a large distance (Belwal 2017). As a result, the commercial processes are hindered
and delayed due to the slow movement of the goods. Hence, railways can solve this particular
problem by providing means of fast transport of goods from one point to another. With the new

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high speed railway some, as the goods movement will be sped by a large factor, the commercial
processing will also be faster and more efficient, reducing operational losses and delays and
gathering more revenue that will be vital for the country’s progress that is mostly dependant on
the sale of oil and petroleum products.
2.2 Importance of the Railway Project in the Sultanate of Oman
2.2.1 The Significance of Transport Sector in Overall Oman Economy
Transport sector is extremely significant and vital for overall Oman economy. Since most
part of the country is desert and rest of the area is along the coastline, there is minimal
agriculture. Furthermore, Oman is not very rich in metals and other raw materials except
petroleum. Hence, the entire economy of the country depends on production, refining and finally
sale of petrol to other countries (Alzebdeh, Bashir and Al Siyabi 2015). Petroleum is mostly
transported to other countries through water and air transport via cargo planes and ships. The
influence of the transport sector in Oman on the country’s economy is reflected in the growth of
the transport sector in the last few years.
From a study, it has been found that in 2015, the transport and logistics section of Oman
had an estimated worth of OR1.7bn ($4.4bn) that was 5.6% of GDP. This value implied that the
sector faced a growth of 1.1% from the previous year value (2014) that was already enhanced by
9.4% from 2013 values (Oxford Business Group 2018). These values clearly show how much the
transport and logistics sector grew fast along with the economy with the country.
When the World Economic Forum published the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-
18, Oman found its way up four places to 62, having above average MENA (Middle East and
North Africa) standards for institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, and health
and primary education. Of these, Oman received a high grade of 4.4 out of 7 in transportation
department with 32nd rank in the quality of transport infrastructure in the world.
As per the second international benchmark, the World Bank’s logistics performance
index, “Oman ranked 48 out of 160 countries in 2016, with a score of 3.2 on a scale of five,
above the MENA average of 2.9. In fact, it outstripped the MENA average in every one of the six
“key dimensions” on the index: at 2.8 to 2.6 for efficiency of Customs clearance, 3.4 to 2.8 for
transport infrastructure, 3.4 to 3.0 for international shipment pricing, 3.3 to 2.8 for logistics

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service quality, 3.1 to 2.9 for ability to track and trace consignments, and 3.5 to 3.3 for
timeliness of delivery” (Oxford Business Group 2018).
From these statistics, it is evident transport plays a very major role in the overall Oman
economy and it will continue to do so. The development of rail network will further benefit the
economy of the country contributing to its accelerated growth.
2.2.2 Traffic Safety
Although the transport network infrastructure of Oman is good (32nd in the world) with
strict rules and guidelines enforced, traffic safety is not always ensured especially in the
highways and rural roads. The condition of traffic safety at night is especially poor due to lack of
lighting, very speedy vehicles and running live stock on the roads (Lakhera 2016). The quality of
the roads in the rural areas is generally poor resulting in a lot of traffic accidents. The
introduction of railways is expected to solve this problem as a large volume of passengers and
cargo will be cleared through the railways.
2.2.3 Sustainable Transportation and Environment
Middle Eastern countries rank very low in the world in terms of sustainable
transportation and environment due to a number of factors. Of these countries, Oman ranks
relatively higher than the other Middle Eastern countries. The Sultanate of Oman has also taken
active initiatives for improving the transportation infrastructure in order to increase its
sustainability and the environment (Times of Oman 2018). A project named National Spatial
Strategy has been adopted that includes the improvement of the existing transport and logistics
infrastructure as well as the development of the new railway network.
3.0 Conclusion
Finally, it can be concluded that transport plays a very major role in the growth of the
economy in Oman and vice versa. However, the country lacks any railway network and hence,
the inland transport is only through highways and hence, the movement of passengers and goods
is very slow and takes a long time to reach one point of the country to another. Also, the road
network is not very detailed and only the large and major cities are connected through the

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highway networks. The introduction of railways will bring a major change in the transport
infrastructure and effectiveness of the country.

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