JEDDAH, 8 September 2005 — Nine consortia including international companies from the United States, Britain, Germany, Russia, India and China have shown interest in the Kingdom’s landbridge project, which is to change the region’s shipping pattern.

The Saudi Railway Organization (SRO) said yesterday that it had received statements of qualification (SOQs) from nine consortia, which intend to pre-qualify for participation in the multibillion-dollar project.

The consortia include a number of Saudi and international companies with activities in construction, shipping, investments, logistics and railways, an SRO statement said.

“The SOQs are being evaluated and qualified parties will be announced in due course,” it added.

Foreign companies interested in the landmark project, which will link the Kingdom’s east with west, came from the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, France, China, India, Korea, Russia, Spain and Italy.

“The high-level of interest received to date reflects the attractiveness of the landbridge project and its potential for supporting the further development of Saudi Arabia and the whole Middle East region,” the statement said.

SRO President Khaled Alyahya has emphasized his organization’s plan to carry out the project next year. “International financial experts will shortlist qualified companies after studying their offers within two months,” he said, adding that the contract would be awarded to qualified consortia by mid-2006.

He denied reports that the SRO had already selected the companies to implement the landmark project, which is aimed at linking King Fahd Port in Jubail, King Abdul Aziz Port in Dammam, the Dry Port in Riyadh and the Jeddah Islamic Port with a state-of-the-art railway network.

Alyahya said the project would be completed within three years. He estimated the cost of the project at less than SR10 billion. Exact figure of the cost was not yet available as it would be calculated based on the project’s specifications.

SRO extended the date for receiving prequalification applications to Aug. 31, 2005 in response to demands by companies intending to bid for the project.

The landbridge project involves construction of 950 km of new tracks between Riyadh and Jeddah and another 115-km line between Dammam and Jubail. SRO intends to build another railway line linking Jeddah with Makkah, Madinah and Yanbu.

The landbridge is the cornerstone of the railway expansion program. It will be the first rail link between the Red Sea and the Gulf and is expected to have a profound impact on the region’s shipping patterns. It will also save shipping time for goods from Europe and North America destined for Gulf markets.

Ali Saad Al-Qarni, SRO vice president for technical affairs, said his organization would identify the route of the landbridge within two months. “We’ll also finalize the technical and operational standards shortly,” he added. The final designs of the project would be left to the investors.

He said it was difficult to determine the cost of the project. “Identification of the railway route will play a big role in calculating the cost as it will give an idea of how many bridges and tunnels have to be constructed,” he said.

A consortium consisting of UBS Investment Bank, the National Commercial Bank and SNCF International has been providing financial and technical advisory services for the project. Linklaters, together with the law office of Abdulaziz H Fahad, extends legal advisory services.

The SRO statement did not name the companies vying for the project. The Shola Group of Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Mishaal recently announced that it had formed a coalition of national and international companies including German, Canadian, Korean and Singaporean firms to take part in the giant project.

Prince Abdul Aziz, supervisor of the group, expressed his hope that Saudi companies would receive the lion’s share of contracts related to the project. He said his group had sent a panel of experts to attend all meetings organized by SRO on the project in order to collect maximum information related to the landbridge.

Prince Abdul Aziz unveiled his group’s intent to take part in other giant projects including oil, gas, electricity, water and desalination projects in cooperation with Russian, Chinese and other international companies.