Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) will tender a USD 67 million (SAR 250 million) contract to upgrade one of its oldest railway stations - the Dammam railway station in a month from now, according to a top official.
"We will float the tender for upgrading the Dammam railway station. We decided to upgrade all old railway stations and the Dammam station is first on our list," Mohammad Khalid Al Suwaiket, President of the SRO, told Zawya in an exclusive interview.
"The Saudi railway history goes back to the middle of the last century. It is high time to start upgrading the existing stations. We have already allocated a budget for Dammam station within our 2014 budget," he said.
"The design of the project is finalized by a Spanish company Getinsa, which is in a joint venture with a local Saudi company," he explained.
Bridges will replace level crossings with a bypass at Hofuf in the upgraded station, allowing a train speed of 200 kilometers per hour, said Al Suwaiket, adding that it will use eight Spanish fast diesel locomotives, each with five cars and one driver car, delivered recently by CAF.
He said the upgrade will reduce the current travel time of 4 hours and 15 minutes to three hours.
Elaborating further, the president said the rails will be upgraded to the GCC standard. The axle load is expected to be 25 tons with standard gauge of 1.435 meters. The minimum curve radius will be 3,500 meters in plain areas and maximum cant will be 150 millimeters, he explained.
The project falls under the wider masterplan of the USD 7 billion SRO's railway expansion program being developed - the Saudi Landbridge.
One of the biggest developments in the region, it involves construction of 950 kilometers of new line between Riyadh and Jeddah and another 115 kilometers track between Dammam and Jubail, according to railwaytechnology.com.
© Zawya 2014
