RIYADH’S governor Prince Khalid bin Bandar flagged off work on Saudi Arabia’s first metro in the capital Riyadh at a groundbreaking ceremony last month (April 3).

NAYEF Al Rajhi Investment has signed a contract with Japan’s Nikken Sekkei consulting and engineering company to build a mixed-use tower in Riyadh, a report said. The tower, on the King Fahd Road, will be a “masterpiece of architectural and engineering excellence”, the Saudi Gazette said in its report.

Contract awards slide 19pc in Q1 THE value of contracts awarded in Saudi Arabia during the first quarter of this year fell 19 per cent to SR39.7 billion ($10.58 billion), compared to SR49.1 billion ($13.09 billion) during the same period last year, a report said.

MORE than 3,709 projects are being currently implemented in the Riyadh region at a cost of SR430 billion ($114 billion). The projects have been distributed between the capital and 20 provinces around it, according to the Riyadh Region Projects Follow-up Programme, a body of the High Commission for the Development of Riyadh City.

SAUDI Arabia has commissioned the first phase of the world’s largest desalination project, being built at a cost of SR27 billion ($7.2 billion) in its Eastern Province, a report said.