DAMMAM: Tenders for the design of stations on the Makkah-Madinah Rail Link (MMRL) project will be accepted by the middle of this year, Abdul Aziz Al-Hoqail, president of the Saudi Railway Organization (SRO) announced yesterday.
Tenders for constructing rail tracks and installing electricity, communication and signaling systems as well as for the import and operation of bullet trains will be accepted in the last quarter of this year, he added.
Speaking to reporters after attending a meeting of SRO’s board of directors, Al-Hoqail said the first phase of the project would be ready by April 2012 and the second phase by December 2012 which will mark the experimental operation.
He said work on the project would start in April, adding that an agreement for implementing the project would be signed next week.
The Al-Rajhi consortium has won the SR6.79 billion contract for the civil works of MMRL or Haramain Railway project that will link the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah with the business and port city of Jeddah.
The project includes construction of electric railway lines with a total length of 450 kms, complete with signal and communication systems and five stations.
Transport Minister Jabara Al-Seraisry said the MMRL with high-speed trains would be an ideal solution to transportation problems faced by millions of pilgrims each year.
Al-Hoqail said the expected journey time on the proposed 300 km per hour bullet trains would be half an hour between Makkah and Jeddah, and two hours between Madinah and Jeddah.
“Bullet trains between the two holy cities, a first in the Middle East, are the safest mode of conveyance for pilgrims and other passengers. The 450 km MMRL project will be fully electric and equipped with the most advanced signaling and communications systems,” he added.
SRO supplied all documents for the first stage of the project to the competing consortiums in April last year with three months for the submission of tenders, he said.