The proposed Jeddah metro project will soon materialize and the budget for the project will be approved, said Mohammed Madani, director-general of roads in Makkah.

The project will help alleviate traffic congestion in Jeddah, especially during rush hour, he said. “We have yet to agree on the contractors who will begin implementing the project.”

The ministry has examined similar projects in developed countries, he said. “The five-city project will involve 20 tracks that will span 615 km.”

“Around 360 km will be dedicated to fast-track cars and more than 30,000 km roads for conventional buses,” said Madani during a conference organized by the Gulf Research Center.

Meanwhile, Wasmi Farraj, director of the expansion projects at the Saudi Railway Organization, said that the railway project connecting the GCC countries will begin operating by 2018.

Trains will start from Kuwait, travel through Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE and terminate in Oman. The track will span more than 2,000 km, he said.

“There is a three-stage strategic plan scheduled for the next 20 years that will see the construction of tracks spanning 9,900 km,” said Farraj.



“The plan involves five huge projects, including the Haramain electric train, which will run at speeds of up to 300 km/h, the north-south train, spanning 1,500 km, which will transport both phosphate and passengers, and the Gulf Train, which will be 2,177 km long,” he said.