Saudi-Jordan rail link

SAUDI Arabia plans to construct a railway line to Jordan as part of the 2,177-km GCC rail network project, a report said.

The kingdom is moving ahead with rail projects to link all its parts, said Mohamed Khalid Al Suwaiket, president of the Saudi Rail Organisation. He denied media reports about plans for a Saudi-UK rail link.

Agility eyes airline

KUWAITI logistics firm Agility is interested in competing to buy a 35 per cent stake in loss-making state carrier Kuwait Airways, local news service Al Rai quoted Agility’s chief executive as saying.

Tarek Sultan said in an interview that Agility’s plan was based on his company’s strategy of expanding into aviation services, Al Rai reported. An Agility spokeswoman declined to comment.

Cofely Besix wins deal

EMIRATES SkyCargo has awarded Cofely Besix Airports and Logistics Services a two-year contract to provide a range of specialist facility management services for its new state-of-the-art cargo warehouse located at the Cargo Mega Terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, UAE.

The warehouse is located at the Cargo Mega Terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport.

Ian Harfield, CEO of Cofely Besix Facility Management, said: “This project definitely adds further scope to the development of our airport services division.”

Contract for OptaSense

OPTASENSE, a QinetiQ company, has won a five-year $12-million contract, split evenly with its partner Taqqat Global Co – Abdulla Fouad Group, to provide security monitoring for two rail lines from Dammam to Riyadh.

The deal, for the 1,000-km rail line, is the first phase in securing the entire rail infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, said a statement.

A dedicated fibre monitoring network incorporating OptaSense’s Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) system will be installed.