A joint venture between a Jordanian firm, Dar Al Omran Infrastructure and Environment, and the engineering arm of the Italian State Railways Group, Italicize, has won a contract to produce a feasibility study of the proposed Arab railway network project. The contract, worth approximately EUR2m (US$2.5m), is being financed by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. The study is due to take one year and will evaluate the situation of railways in the region, the feasibility of the network and the estimated costs of a railway network for both passenger and freight services extending from North Africa across to the Gulf states. It is not clear how the Arab League-sponsored project would connect with a number of individual national railway projects already under development across the region.