Gulf Construction Online - $14bn railway deals awarded

Saudi Focus

$14bn railway deals awarded

01 November 2018

The Saudi government has signed three landmark agreements worth nearly $14 billion for implementing mega railway projects on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative 2018 in Riyadh last month, reported state news agency SPA.

Minister of Transport Nabil Al Amoudi, who is also chairman of the board of the Public Transport Authority (PTA), signed the first agreement for the $10.6-billion Land Bridge project, which is aimed at linking the Red Sea and the GCC ports via the railways between the Saudi cities of Dammam and Riyadh.

Another major deal signed at the “Davos in the Desert” meeting was for $3.6 billion, with a Spanish consortium to build Phase Two of the Haramain High Speed Train project, said the SPA report.

The third agreement, worth $267 million, was inked between Saudi Railway Company and the US group Green Bakery Corporation for the manufacturing of train wagons in the kingdom, it added.

Meanwhile, on the Riyadh Metro project, the Fast Consortium, led by Spanish builder FCC, said it has been tasked with building a 1.5-km-long extension and adding two more new stations to Line 4.

The consortium includes global majors Samsung (South Korea), Strukton (Netherlands), Alstom (France) and Freysinnet (Saudi Arabia). The scope of work includes construction of a 1.5-km-long viaduct and two elevated stations with direct access, via elevated footbridges, to terminals 1/2 and 3/4 of the international airport of the Saudi capital, said FCC.

Line 4 of the Riyadh Metro will thus connect directly the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) with the King Khalid International Airport (KKIA), which makes it a key corridor for the development of Riyadh urban transport, it stated.

“The Fast Consortium is building Lines 5 and 6 of the Riyadh Metro, in addition to the Line 4, which is a milestone for Spanish engineering as it is the most important infrastructure contract for a company in our country,” said a company spokesman. “Currently, the project is ongoing, reaching milestones as significant as the electrification of the depot for Lines 4 and 6, which recently allowed for the first test of the trains in automatic mode.”