Consortiums hoping to win the contracts for the Two Holy Mosques train project have been given three months to prepare their technical and financial bids for the first stage. The Railways Corporation issued its conditions to selected groups on Tuesday, stipulating the technical demands and agreements requiring commitment from all parties in the first stage of the project's first phase. The corporation, upon receiving the bids, will decide on the winner after a period of two months. The approval of the project's invitation-for-bids documents signifies an important step within the preparatory procedures of execution, Dr. Jubarah Bin Eid Al-Soraisri, Transportation Minister and the chairman of the Railways Corporation, told Al-Watan Arabic daily. “The corporation and the project consultants have made great efforts to reach a final draft that covers all legal, financial and technical aspects,” he said. The second part of the project's first phase will include building train stations. The second phase itself will include building the railway lines and signal and communication systems, in addition to the importing of trains and overseeing operation and maintenance. President of the Railways Organization, Eng. Abdul Aziz Al-Huqail, said the trains would be capable of reaching speeds of more than 300 km per hour. “A trip from Jeddah to Makkah will take half an hour, and Jeddah to Madina will not take more than two hours,” Al-Huqail said. “The project will provide fast and safe transportation for Saudis and pilgrims and Umrah performers, as well as being an excellent addition to the development projects the government is carrying out at the holy sites, while putting the Kingdom among the elite of countries that employ high-speed trains. The project includes building a 450-km electrical railway equipped with the latest communication and signal systems, while in the second phase the contracted company will be obliged to provide sufficient trains for the expected number of passengers and maintain and operate the project while meeting the growth in demand during the period of the contract. Six consortiums were originally qualified to bid for the contract, but two joined to present a unified offer and another dropped out. The four remaining consortiums, each of which is comprised of a large number of specialist rail industry contractors and companies and a number of Saudi investors, are: Al-Rajhi Consortium, the Saudi Bin Laden Group and OHL International, Saudi Oger, and the Saudi
