RIYADH – Saudi Arabia is expected to award contracts for construction of the planned 115-km (72-mile) rail link between its industrial city of Jubail and Dammam before the end of 2012, a senior Saudi Railway Company (SAR) official said on Tuesday.
“Bids were received and they are under evaluation. The project will be awarded before the end of the year,” Bashar Almalik, SAR’s director of civil and track works, told a rail conference in the United Arab Emirates capital. He did not give the financial value of the contracts.
Almalik said design and construction contracts for a 220 km Jubail network inside Jubail were expected to be tendered early in 2013. Bids from qualified consortia for another project, the 42 km Riyadh metro, are expected next month, he added.