Saudi Arabia plans to seek bidders for Land Bridge railway line: report

Saudi Arabia is planning to seek bids for the construction of a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) railroad linking the Red Sea with the Arabian Gulf by the end of this year, a Bloomberg report said.

Contract tenders will be issued at the end of this year or early 2018, Saudi Railway Co. chief executive officer Bashar Al Malik told Bloomberg.

The Land Bridge line will reduce nearly three days from the current five-day journey time from the Saudi coast for shipping cargo, while improving links to Riyadh and Jeddah.

The Kingdom first awarded contracts for a privately funded coast-to-coast line in 2008, but the project was put on hold after financial terms could not be agreed, the report said. It is now “moving ahead to implement the project” after an encouraging response from the private sector, Al Malik said.

The cost of the line will depend on the route chosen and the location of the Red Sea terminus, with bidding for contracts likely to include local and international engineering companies and financial institutions, Al Malik said.

Other than the Land Bridge line, Saudi Railway is also targeting increased freight shipments on the country’s Northern Line, including minerals transported for Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Maaden).

Phosphate volumes should rise to 5 million tons this year from 4.4 million in 2016, while bauxite carriage may improve to 4 million tons from 3.3 million, Al Malik said.

Saudi Railway is also studying its ability to increase capacity as Maaden, along with partners Mosaic Co. and Saudi Basic Industries Corp., expands production at Waad al-Shamal in the north of the country, he said.

The railway company is also looking at expanding service links for Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco), which has most of its plants in Tabuk, Turaif and the Al Jouf region.

Saudi Railway also sees opportunities for increased freight haulage center on agricultural production in the Busaita area of Al Jouf, which does not use the rail infrastructure as yet, Al Malik said.