Heletz Railway

The Heletz railway runs through southern Israel, connecting Kiryat Gat to Ashkelon and linking into the coastal railway known as the Pleshet line.[1] It was conceived as part of the broader expansion of Israel Railways' southern network, alongside rail connections serving the phosphate and potash industries and the port of Ashdod.[1] The line's primary function is the movement of minerals from the south to Ashdod Port, serving the needs of Israel Chemicals Ltd. and the broader industrial freight sector.[1]

In November 1978, the Ministry of Transport and Israel Railways, together with the Ministries of Finance and Industry and Trade and Israel Chemicals Ltd., formally decided to build the line from Kiryat Gat to Ashkelon.[1] Detailed planning began that same year, and to ensure momentum, Israel Railways' director general established a dedicated project administration in December 1978, headed by the director general himself and including representatives from the Finance and Transport ministries.[1] This body was tasked with resolving financial, staffing, and planning matters and with giving project-related work priority across railway units.[1]

Construction was completed in November 1982.[1] The project cost 267.7 million shekels at prices current on March 31, 1983, with Israel Railways issuing 24 tenders and signing 24 contractor agreements totaling approximately 80 million shekels.[1] Works encompassed two road bridges, one railway bridge, track and sleeper installation, earthworks, and construction of facilities at six stations: Kiryat Gat, Ashdod, Pleshet, Rehovot, Dvira, and Ashkelon.[1]

Approximately 1,000 dunams of agricultural land — some of it uncultivated — were expropriated for the project, with compensation totaling approximately 10 million shekels at March 1983 prices.[1] Possession of this land was taken only in May 1979, roughly six months after the formal expropriation order. The delay created significant disruption: landholders objected to the railway taking possession, and court intervention was ultimately required to resolve the disputes and allow construction to proceed.[1]

The completed route shortened the distance between Kiryat Gat and Ashdod Port by 18 kilometers.[1] Crucially, it also eliminated the need for freight trains to stop at Lod station, which served as a bottleneck in the national railway system. Together, these improvements saved nearly three hours per freight-train round trip, a significant efficiency gain for the continuous movement of minerals to the port.[1]

Decades after its opening, the line continued to see infrastructure investment. In 2014, upgrading of the freight line in the Heletz area was completed, with that work reported among Israel Railways' broader infrastructure development activities for the year, alongside the promotion of new routes and the upgrading of older stations.[2] Systemwide, railway cargo totaled 7.5 million tons in 2014, up 12% from 6.7 million tons in 2013; those figures covered Israel Railways as a whole rather than the Heletz line.[2]

The State Comptroller's Office audited construction-related work between September and December 1983.[1] Its principal findings pointed to inadequate quantity estimates in some work specifications, cases of excess expenditure — particularly where prices paid for quantities performed exceeded the tender quantities — and departures from restricted-tender procedures.[1] The audit also identified insufficient materials testing. In eight of 24 examined concrete pours, no samples were submitted; among 12 cases in which samples were supplied, 10 had fewer samples than required by the specification.[1]

A separate dispute documented in the report concerned the terms for transporting minerals under the contract with Israel Chemicals Ltd. Israel Railways argued that the contract did not ensure its actual mineral-transport costs would be covered, while Israel Chemicals contended that a proposed 46% tariff increase exceeded what the railway was entitled to receive.[1] The Transport Ministry had promised to establish a committee to examine mineral-transport costs once the Heletz line entered service, but that committee had not been constituted by the time the audit concluded.[1]