Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal would attend the signing ceremony after attending a meeting to review the final plan for the Metro Makkah project, which would bring about qualitative change in the city’s transportation.

The project is carried out by the Al-Balad Al-Amin Company, which is owned by the Makkah Municipality with a capital of SR1.2 billion. The Makkah metro with four lines will be linked with the Haramain railway that connects Makkah with Madinah.

“The Metro Makkah project includes construction of four railway networks linking all parts of the holy city,” said Al-Bar, who is also chairman of the company’s board of directors. He said contracts would be signed with Ernst & Young to become the project’s financial consultant and with Ashurst to become legal consultant.

“This is the last phase before implementing the project,” the mayor said, adding that work on the new railway would start within a year. He said the metro would cover not only the present residential districts in the holy city but also areas to be developed in the future.

Al-Balad Al-Amin has already completed the technical study for the project, which will be offered for bidding among companies in the third quarter of this year. Al-Bar said the railway stations near the Grand Mosque in Makkah would have a unique design.

The new project follows the construction of Mashair Railway, which links the holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifa with Makkah. Established at a cost of SR6.5 billion, Mashair Railway will have a capacity to transport 72,000 pilgrims in an hour. It reduced the time for transporting pilgrims from Arafat to Muzdalifah and from Muzdalifa to Mina five minutes each. Pilgrims who used the facility during the last Haj season said that it has revolutionized transportation in the holy sites.