National Planning Council Advances 50-Kilometer Menashe Rail Plan

Israel’s National Planning and Building Council approved the Menashe Rail plan for deposit, advancing a roughly 50-kilometer double-track line linking Harish, Baqa-Jatt, Menashe, Alona and Emek Hefer to the national network. The route will connect the Eastern Railway in the south with the Jezreel Valley Railway in the north and add stations at Bat Hefer, Baqa al-Gharbiyye and Harish. About one-third of the alignment will run in tunnels, including beneath the Megiddo Biosphere Reserve, while the plan also upgrades roads 574 and 581. Reports place the project’s cost at about NIS 10 billion.