“The project will bring about a facelift of downtown Riyadh and make it an outstanding historic, administrative, economic and cultural centre in the Kingdom,” said Ibrahim Al-Sultan, a member of the RDA and head of its centre for projects and planning. The plan includes open areas in the city centre, a ring road, housing prokects and the creation of a network of pedestrian pathways.
In total, 3,088 development projects worth SR278bn (£49bn) are being implemented in different parts of the Riyadh region.
The central region will have three main railway lines and several bus routes. It will also house the main railway station, which will be part of the city’s public transport system. A new cultural, heritage and tourism route will be created, running from the King Abdul Aziz Historical Center to the Government Palace (Qasr Al-Hukm).
Sixty-two agencies have been authorised to follow up on the implementation of these projects. Theagencies will also generate proposals for the development of the region and ways to remove obstacles facing development.
RDA’s meeting yesterday also approved rules and regulations for the development of Wadi Haneefa and surrounding valleys. The project aims to make use of the area as a tourist and amusement centre while protecting its agricultural and heritage sites.
There was a visual presentation of the public transport system for Riyadh city, including two networks for trains and buses.
Four international consortia are competing to build a metro network in Riyadh. They include 33 companies from 15 countries. Bidders for the project include Vinci and Alstom of France, Italy’s Ansaldo, Canada’s Bombardier, Germany’s Siemens and Stadler Bussnang of Switzerland.
Six lines of electric railways, totalling 175km, are planned across Riyadh to serve the airport and the King Abdullah Financial District currently under construction.
The RDA indicated that it might award the contract to more than one consortium considering the project’s huge size.
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