Mr Colin Barnett West Australian Premier has ruled out allowing Yilgarn Infrastructure to build a USD 2 billion rail network in the state's mid west.

In 2008, Japanese backed company Oakajee Port & Rail won the right to negotiate with the government over the development of the new port near Geraldton.

It may be noted that Yilgarn Infrastructure has submitted a proposal to the state government to build the rail line connecting iron ore mines in the region with the new port. Yilgarn's proposal included an option for interim export facilities, which would allow ore to be transported as early as 2011.

Earlier, Mark McGowan spokesman of Opposition state development said that the proposal was worth investigating. He added that "If a company wants to invest billions of dollars into Western Australia, particularly at a time of economic downturn, that's something the State Government should talk to them about. The condition would be that it should not inhibit the development of a port at Oakajee."

Mr John Saunders chairman of Yilgarn said that the project would employ more than 2,000 people during construction alone. He added that "So that's bringing a very significant royalty flow into the state government about 3 years earlier than Oakajee would otherwise do it."

But Mr Barnett said that the two companies went to a tender process and Oakajee Port and Rail came out on top. He added that "OPR won that tender, they are therefore the preferred bidder and the government is dealing solely with them on both the port and rail developments."

(Sourced from www.abc.net.au)