Panel to acquire land for Riyadh Metro

Properties at 32 sites will be acquired for the $22.5 billion Riyadh Metro project, said Ibrahim Al-Sultan, president of Arriyadh Development Authority. “We have set up a special committee at ADA for land acquisition,” he said.
Riyadh Gov. Prince Khaled bin Bandar launched the 176-km metro project on Sunday night, awarding the contracts to three leading consortia led by US, Spanish and Italian firms.
The six-line network is aimed at easing chronic traffic congestion in Riyadh, a city of 6 million people.
It will “make life easier” in the capital where the population is expected to grow to “8.5 million people in the coming 10 years,” said the governor.
A consortium led by US engineering giant Bechtel Corp will construct two lines worth $9.45 billion.
Spanish-led BTP-FCC consortium will build three of the metro lines for $7.88 billion, after it beat competition from 38 groups that were vying for the project.
It is “the biggest international contract in the history of Spanish constructions,” the Spanish consortium said in a statement on Monday.
Alstom, part of the Spanish consortium, added that it was awarded a deal by Saudi Arabia to “provide a complete automatic and driverless metro system to equip three of the six lines.”
Another line costing $5.21 billion went to groups headed by Italy's Ansaldo.