US $1.3bn monorail for holy cities

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Four monorail tracks will be launched to connect the holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipalities and Rural Affairs is planning to construct a US $1.3 billion (SAR5 billion) monorail in the holy cities of Makkah, Mina, Muzdalifa and Arafat by 2010.

Four monorail tracks will be launched to connect the holy sites.

Consortia including Agility PWC Logistics Consortium, Mada Consortium, Saudi Binladin Consortium and Al-Muhaidib/ACWA (Tarabot) Consortium have presented their financial and technical offers for implementing the project.

The plan is to start work on the project before Hajj in December to guarantee completion in 18 months.

The ministry has said that the streets will not be closed during the construction process.

The route for the monorail, which will be operating on highly powerful steel railroads supported by strong concrete pillars, has already been identified. The monorail will be 5.5m above the ground and passengers will be able to board or get off by ordinary or electric stairs.

The monorail will run at heights of between 8m to 10m to avoid any obstruction of traffic and pedestrians on the ground. It will also enable residents of Makkah to use it to perform the stoning ritual in Mina.

Scomi Engineering president Hilmi Zaini said the Scomi Group was currently studying proposals from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain to set up monorail systems in the region.

Scomi Engineering is a unit of Scomi Group involved in constructing monorail systems.

"We expect one of these countries to be our base for expansion in the Middle East, just like India and Vietnam are our bases for expansion in South Asia and South-East Asia, respectively," said Hilmi.

"The monorail system is expected to generate annual revenues of SAR200 million by transporting some one million Hajj pilgrims at a cost of SAR200 per pilgrim, and an additional SR150 million from services to Umrah pilgrims charging SAR50 per pilgrim," said Dr. Habib Zainul Abideen, deputy minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs.

The monorail would have four to eight carriages and can transport 20,000 passengers an hour - nearly 800,000 pilgrims during the Hajj. The project also includes parking facilities so that pilgrims can park their cars at the entrance of Makkah and then board the monorail.

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