The
Ottomans needed eight years to
build the Hijaz Railway, extending from Damascus to Medina in present time
Saudi Arabia, with a branch to Haifa; a total 1,300km was built when World War I
interrupted the project before the trains could reach Mecca, short of 400km.
اضافة اعلان
In Jordan, as put by former
transport minister Lina Shbeeb in an interview with Jordan News, “This project
has been under review for more than 10 years; it has direction and an economic
benefit but there are no finalized plans." The Turks needed 8 years to do
the real thing and we have been thinking for 10 years.
This comes as no surprise because we have
precedents of failure. The construction of the Bus Rapid Transit project started in 2010 after years
of planning, then the government of Marouf Al-Bakhit, for some reason, raised
questions about its feasibility and funding and brought it to a complete stop
before it was resurrected a few years ago.
Another stop-start is the
Amman-Zarqa light train, which was first proposed in mid-2000s, and has since suffered
a series of setbacks, with consistent failures on the part of the government to
select the right partner to carry out the vital project. An airport in Shuneh for agriculture
exports, another in Mafraq, a new capital in Madouneh, the Aqaba-Amman Highway:
Deadlines and failures, or complete halts and shelvings; a dismaying string of
failures, and we keep naively asking why citizens do not trust the governments.
Once again, the project is back to the
drawing board. Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khassawneh told investors in Mafraq
last Thursday that the government is looking for investors in a mega railway
scheme, without giving details about the scope of the plan. Is it a pan-Jordan passenger
and freight network expanding to neighbors, or just freight? Are we waiting for
a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel and subsequent normal ties
between Saudi Arabia and Tel Aviv? Are Syria, Iraq, and Tukey on board?
The most recently proposed railway
project includes a railway link between the port city of Aqaba and the Madouneh
dry port in east Amman to transport goods, with plans to expand regionally to
connect the Kingdom to its neighbors.
The situation is still wrapped in
the customary vagueness of official media, but in all cases, it boils down to
the issue of funding. The practice is that the government will be seeking a
partner to execute the project under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) deal.
Historically, some BOT projects fail for one of two reasons: the inability of
the bidder to obtain financing, or a disagreement with the government over the
cost on end-users.
Having that in mind, one wonders why
other options are not considered, especially since the Public-Private
Partnership Law is in place, offering the necessary legislation to facilitate
mega projects in infrastructure. A public shareholding company, where the
government, local banks, businessmen, and average people share the cost is a
good option; after all, the project is financially promising.
What is needed is a professional
feasibility study, which can be contributed by the World Bank's International
Finance Corporation. The organization has already done that for Jordan, most
notable when the Queen Alia Airport was left for an international investor to
manage, recording a success story.
The country and the region need this
project badly, so does the state, to restore Jordanians' faith in their
administration. The train has not left the station yet.
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Opinion & Analysis
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