The ambitious $10-billion project to connect Gulf nations through a modern rail network, stretching over 2,000 km, is expected to become operational by 2018, with authorities working to ensure that

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are set to spend around $54 billion in the near future to increase the capacity of their electricity networks by 32,000 MW, a new report has said.

Over two dozen countries, including Pakistan, will take part next week in a full-scale test of the Indian Ocean`s tsunami alert system, using the 2004 Sumatra quake as the basis for the exercise, U

Reliance Industries has withdrawn from an offshore oil exploration block in the Sea of Oman, a news report has said, quoting authorities.

Rising oil prices is forcing Gulf states to invest in gas production. Some analysts estimate that the cumulative supply shortfall for the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council up to 2015 will reach at least 7,000bn cubic feet. To put the number into perspective, according to BP the UK's entire remaining proven gas reserves total just under 17,000bn cu ft. "There is a Middle East regional gas crisis brewing," says Rajnish Goswami at Wood Mackenzie, the Edinburgh-based energy consultancy.

With two proposed overland transnational pipelines through Pakistan caught in geopolitical knots, fresh efforts have been launched to revive a longburied plan of establishing an international energy lifeline under the Arabian Sea to feed gas to India's fuel-guzzling economy from West Asia.

>> In the latest plan to stem the flow of the mud volcano that erupted last year in East Java, Indonesia, a US $69 million-proposal has been chalked out. A concrete dam will be built to check the mud flow, which has already displaced around 15,000 people (see

UNESCO

Camel experts from research institutions and non-government organisations in India, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK met at the training centre of Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan near Mammaji-ki-dhuni at Sadri, District Pali, Rajasthan, India, on 23-25 November 2004, and came up with the following recommendations:

• Urgently investigate how to restore sufficient pastureland for camels in order to halt the decline in camel numbers.