DUBAI: A new $3 billion railway is to link Oman’s Sohar port with Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, officials said on Wednesday.

The 303-kilometre (188 miles) railway, with passenger trains travelling up to 200 kilometres per hour, will join up with the UAE’s national network that is now under construction.

The joint venture between Oman Rail and the UAE’s Etihad Rail was agreed during a visit by UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed to the Omani capital Muscat.

“The railway... promises huge strategic economic and social gains,” Abdulrahman Salim Al Hatmi, Group CEO of Oman Rail’s parent company Asyad, said in a statement issued by the Abu Dhabi government.