“Railways is a new industry that needs technical support and assistance by an organization like ours,” Mohammed Al-Suwaiyel, president of KACST, told newsmen following the signing ceremony at the KACST headquarters here.
Al-Suwaiyel and Mansour Al-Mayman, president of SAR, signed the research agreement that would run for a period of five years. KACST Vice President Prince Turki bin Saud was also present.
Al-Suwaiyel stressed that the new railway system in the Kingdom could face technical problems due to environment and social conditions, and KACST is well equipped to tackle this. “KACST has rich experience in the field and would conduct research with national interest in mind,” the president said, adding, that KACST is always there to support and develop national efforts.
Al-Suwaiyel said the movement of sand dunes along the rail lines, extreme heat that could have an impact on the electronic equipment fixed along the rail track and the social reactions of the people living near the railway stations that are to be built across the Kingdom are the likely problems SAR cold face in its operation.
“We can also supply technically-skilled manpower to the project,” he added. He said National Science and Technology Plan would fund the research.
Thanking KACST for its technical support, Rumaih bin Muhammad Al-Rumaih, executive chairman of SAR, said that such research would definitely help the company to run the railways in a trouble-free environment.
Al-Rumaih also said that the commissioning of the mineral railway line project has been postponed for the first quarter of 2011. He said that the laying of the final phase of 100kms rail line is currently facing some technical snags, which would be sorted out soon.
He said that the 2,400-km North-South Railway has been given priority due to its importance to industrial development. It would ferry minerals from mines located in the north and central zones at Al-Jalamid and Al-Zubaira to processing at Ras Al-Zour in the east. The new mineral rail line would transport 15,000 tons of minerals in a single trip which otherwise would need 600 cargo trucks. He added that each locomotive would have 100 wagons.
