MADINAH, 28 April — A rail link between the east and west coasts of Saudi Arabia, one of four railway projects being considered by the Kingdom, is estimated to cost SR6.5 billion ($1.7 billion).
The 950-kilometer link between Jeddah on the Red Sea and Dammam on the Gulf, Saudi Arabia’s largest ports, is expected to boost cargo transport by 19.5 percent to 30 million tons a year. The project will also transport 23 million passengers a year. The Kingdom has invited the private sector to construct the railways, but authorities are still evaluating options to award the projects, with the build-operate-transfer (BOT) being favored.
Several foreign and local firms are bidding for the projects to expand the Saudi railways. Japan last year turned down a Saudi request to finance a $2 billion rail link between phosphate mines in the north and industrial centers in eastern Saudi Arabia. The decision cost Tokyo an oil-drilling concession which Riyadh refused to renew in February 2000.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the Arabian peninsula with a railway. At the moment, there is only one active route between the capital and Dammam. The earlier railway link built by the Ottomans, linked northern border cities with Madinah to transport Muslim pilgrims.
