Work on the $22.5 billion Riyadh Metro project began here Thursday and Riyadh Gov. Prince Khaled bin Bandar, who launched the groundbreaking work, said the project, to be completed in 48 months, would improve the quality of life in the capital city.

A high-level committee has been set up to solve all problems facing its implementation, including traffic problems, he said.

“Of course there will be traffic delays while implementing this huge project and I request people of Riyadh to bear with us. We’ll do everything possible to facilitate traffic,” he told reporters after launching the project.

Digging work started in five places on Thursday including for the metro station at King Khaled International Airport, Al-Olaya Station, its control center and railway maintenance station.

Al-Olaya Station, covering an area of 28,000 square meters, will have shopping centers, service facilities and car parking areas, an official said. It is designed to serve 400,000 passengers daily.

The airport station will be located at the fifth terminal, which is being constructed, the official said.

There will be three stations linking the airport with King Abdullah Financial Center.

The control and operation center will be located near the maintenance station, west of Princess Nora University.

The Riyadh governor later chaired a meeting of experts to follow up implementation of the project and discussed matters related to design, traffic and coordination with various departments.

Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) announced the winning bidders on July 28 for three design and build contracts worth $ 22.5 billion for the construction of a 176.7km six-line automated metro network in the capital city.

The Fast consortium, which is led by Spanish construction group FCC, will build three lines totaling 73km in a deal worth $7.82 billion.

FCC’s partners in Fast include Alstom; Samsung C&T; Strukton, Netherlands; Freyssinet, Saudi Arabia; Typsa, Spain; and Setec, France. Alstom’s share of the contract is worth around $1.6 billion and includes a fleet of 69 metropolis trains, together with Communications Based Train Control (CBTC), Hesop energy recovery system, and its Appitrack tracklaying system.

The Arriyadh New Mobility Group (ANM) will construct the 40.7km Red Line from Madinah Road to Prince Saad bin Abdul Rahman Road in a contract worth $5.21 billion.

Ansaldo STS’ share is worth $680 million and covers automatic train control (ATC), CBTC and power supplies.

Finally, the Bechtel-led BACS consortium will build the 39km Blue Line from Olaya Street to Batha Street and Al-Hayer Road, and the 25km Green Line along King Abdullah Road.

The contract has a total value of $9.45 billion.

According to FCC, the construction of the network will require 600,000 tons of steel, 4.3 million cubic meters of concrete, and will employ more than 30,000 people.