JEDDAH, 4 October 2006 — Work on the North-South Railway Project (NSRP) will start shortly as Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf yesterday signed two contracts worth more than SR1.8 billion with Saudi firms to prepare the ground for building railroads.
The 2,400-km NSRP linking Al-Jalamid and Al-Zubairah in the north to the industrial city of Jubail in the east will boost the Kingdom’s mineral industry, an official statement said.
“Tenders will be invited from specialized national and international companies to build the railway line in the second phase of the project,” the statement said.
The Council of Ministers approved in May this year the licensing of a new firm named Saudi Arabian Railways (SAR) with a capital of SR1 billion to carry out the north-south railway project.
Al-Assaf had earlier signed a SR512 million contract with a consortium of multinational companies led by the Louis Berger Group of the United States to do the complete design and construction of NSRP.
