9 Groups Bid for East-West Railway Project

According to Al-Jazirah newspaper (September 18, 2005), the Saudi Undersecretary of Transportation, Mr. Abdullah Al-Muqbel, announced that 9 groups are bidding for the East- West railway project, which is planned to connect the Jeddah and Riyadh cities. The official estimates the railway project’s costs at SR 11 billion. He added that the railway was designed to transport passengers as well as cargo. The new east-west railway land-bridge project is designed to be carried out as a build-own-operate venture private sector while the assets and staff of the existing Saudi Railways Organization will be transferred to whatever consortium takes up the BOT opportunity.