In the initial quarter of 2010, the Secretariat General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will be floating a public tender for the GCC's proposed $25 billion regional railway network.

On Saturday, Mohammad Bin Obeid al Mazroui, the GCC assistant secretary general for economic affairs, explained that the project will involve not more than five companies. He added that the whole project would be undertaken by one company or many companies would work on the project in a partnership.

The regional trade and tourism is likely to witness increase with the construction on the 2,117 km long railway line, which will begin in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and further extend to Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE.

Al Mazroui told that the project managers were expecting the railway to be functional by 2017.

"GCC nations will invest $109 billion in this project alone over the next decade in their effort to alleviate chronic traffic congestions," says the report by Kuwait Financial Centre issued last week. The report also expected additional investments in other regional railway projects.