JEDDAH: The Saudi Railway Company (SAR) has completed the construction of a 1,392-km-long railway line from Northern Border Province to Ras Al-Zour Seaport on the Gulf, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf announced Tuesday. Al-Assaf is the chairman of the board of directors of the Public Investments Fund (PIF) that owns SAR.
The railway line links the phosphate mines in Hazm Al-Jalameed in the Northern Border Province to the manufacturing area in Raz Al-Zour, passing through Jouf, Hail, Qassim and into the Eastern Province.
The minister said the company began the experimental operation of the line with the first shipment of phosphate from the mines of the Saudi Mining Company on special rail car which it unloaded in Ras Al-Zour. Secretary-general of the PIF, Mansour bin Saleh Al-Miman, who is chairman of the board of directors of SAR, said work on the railway line began in 2006 after contracts were signed with local and international companies. He said the locomotives were imported in 2009. He explained that the first consignment consisted of 200 tons of phosphate and was carried on board four rail cars. He said the shipments will increase to reach 15,000 tons on 155 cars.
Al-Miman said for the construction of the line, 350 million cubic meters of sand and rocks were removed, 71 bridges and 912 crossings were built and more than 170,000 tons of steel used.
The chairman said the company is currently working to complete work of passenger and goods lines extending from Riyadh to the borders with Jordan passing through Qassim, Hail, Jouf and Qurayat. He expected the project to be completed by 2014.
Source : Arab News, May 25, 2011 00:33