RIYADH - The Saudi government awarded on Tuesday three contracts totaling 1.9 billion dollars for the construction of railways covering 1,766 kilometres (1,100 miles), the official SPA news agency reported.
One was awarded to a consortium headed by the Bin Laden Group and including unnamed German firms to build 576 kilometres of the line at a cost of 2.356 billion riyals (628.3 millions dollars).
A second 440-kilometre stretch, costing 1.963 billion riyals, is to be built by a Chinese-led consortium.
The final section is to be built by an Australian-led group covering 750 kilometres and costing 2.872 billion riyals.
The work is expected to take 42 months to complete.
Bids will later be sought for supplementary sections of track, as well for rolling stock and traffic control systems, SPA said, without giving details.
04/03/2007 19:53 GMT