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Kuwait’s Municipal Council Technical Committee, chaired by Mounira Al-Amir, has approved right-of-way and land for the railway route linking the country with Saudi Arabia, marking a new milestone for the railway project, according to local Arabic-language newspaper Alrai.
The project forms part of the wider Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) railway programme aimed at establishing an integrated passenger and freight rail network linking GCC member states, the report published on Tuesday said.
The first phase of the Kuwait railway will extend approximately 111 kilometres (km) from the planned main passenger station in Shadadiyah near Kuwait City to Nuwaiseeb on the country’s southwestern border with Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait’s section is expected to account for around 5 percent of the overall GCC rail network, with the country serving as the northern terminus of the system.
Saudi section tender
The Kuwait route approval follows Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) issuing a tender on 7 May for design consultancy services for the Saudi section of the GCC railway.
According to Dubai-based project news portal MEED, the Saudi route will extend approximately 672 km from Al-Khafji near the Kuwait border to Al Batha on the UAE border. Bid submissions are due on 30 June 2026.
Kuwait project progress
In April 2025, Kuwait had awarded the engineering and consultancy services contract for the first phase of the railway project to Turkey’s PROYAPI Engineering and Consultancy.
Final designs were expected to be completed in January 2026, and project implementation planned between 2028 and 2030, according to November 2025 report by local English language daily Arab Times.
In a separate report that month, Arab Times said design works for the main passenger station have already been completed. Previous media reports had indicated that the passenger station will span approximately 2 million square metres (sqm).
The Kuwait railway project is being spearheaded by Public Authority for Roads and Land Transport (PART). A high-speed rail link between Kuwait and Riyadh is included in the plan.
Rail development forms part of Kuwait Vision 2035, which envisaged the Kuwait National Railroad (KNRR) project linking airports, ports and GCC countries through a rail network estimated at around 5,743 km with investments of approximately $10 billion under a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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