Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) has awarded a major contract worth upto $900 million to the Arriyadh New Mobility Consortium to build the next phase of the Riyadh Metro project, which is the Line 2 extension, reported MEED.
The consortium comprises global players including Italy’s Webuild, India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Saudi group Nesma & Partners, Japan’s Hitachi, Italy’s Ansaldo STS, the Canadian firm Bombardier, Spain’s Idom and WorleyParsons from Australia.
The Riyadh Metro’s first phase features six lines with 84 stations, while Line 2 extension is 8.4km long - of which 1.3km is elevated and 7.1km is underground. It includes five stations – two elevated and three underground.
It will run from where Line 2 currently ends at King Saud University (KSU) and then travel onwards to new stations at KSU Medical City, KSU West, Diriyah East, Diriyah Central, where it interchanges with the planned Line 7, and then finally to Diriyah South.
Riyadh Metro Transit Consultants (RMTC), a joint venture between the US-based firm Parsons and the French engineering firms Egis and Systra, is the project management and construction supervision consultant.
RMTC had previously worked as a project management and construction supervision consultant on Lines 1, 2 and 3 of the Riyadh Metro scheme.
Spanning 176km, the Riyadh Metro network is longest driverless metro line in the world featuring 85 transit stations and seven rail depots. It comprises six lines - Blue; Red; Orange; Yellow; Green and Purple.
The RCRC completed the phased rollout of the Riyadh Metro network when it started operating the Orange Line in January. In December last year, the RCRC started operating the Red Line and Green Line.
The Red Line, known as Line 2, stretches 25.1km from the east of Riyadh to the west, via King Abdullah Road, connecting King Fahd Sports City and King Saud University. It has a total of 15 stations, said the MEED report.
The Green Line, also known as Line 5, extends 13.3km from King Abdullah Road to the National Museum. With 12 stations, it serves several ministries and government agencies, including the Defence Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Commerce Ministry, as well as other areas.
Earlier in December, the RCRC started operating the Blue Line (Line 1), Yellow Line (Line 4) and Purple Line (Line 6).
