A high-speed railway linking Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia will finally start operating in September, the Spanish consortium building the project said Thursday (May 17th).
The railway linking Islam's holiest cities, initially scheduled to open at the end of 2016, had a cost overrun of 210 million euros ($247.4 million) which Saudi Arabia has agreed to pay, Al-Shoula consortium said in a statement.
It will begin operating in September with four trains per week, before offering daily service by September 2019, AFP reported.
Saudi Arabia in 2011 awarded the contract worth 6.7 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to the consortium of 12 Spanish companies and two Saudi firms for the project which aims to improve transport between the two cities during the annual hajj.
The contract -- one of the biggest Spanish firms have ever undertaken abroad -- is for the laying of the 444 kilometres of track between Mecca and Medina, providing 35 trains and maintaining the line for 12 years.
When it is finished, the rail link will be able to move 166,000 passengers per day.
The rail line crosses the Arabian Desert, where sandstorms are frequent and large dunes can suddenly form, which has added to the difficulties in completing the project.
