King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Mosques, is determined to have the Holy Sites Train operational in this year's Haj, Dr. Habeeb Zainabdeen, undersecretary at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and supervisor of development projects at the Holy Sites, said. King Abdullah stressed the importance of completing the project, which is being built by Chinese companies, before the Haj season, when he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao at a summit in Toronto in June, said Dr. Zainabdeen, who was involved in high-level meetings there to discuss the project. “Prince Mansour Bin Mit'eb, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, assigned me to meet with the Minister of Railways in China to stress the importance of committing to the deadline set for the completion of this vital project,” he said. “During the talks I held with the Chinese minister, which lasted seven hours, he told me to convey to King Abdullah the assurance of the Chinese President that project will be completed on time and the project's first stage will be operational during this year's Haj season.” Dr. Zainabdeen denied rumors about delays in operating the train in this year's Haj and said 80 percent of the project's work has been completed. The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs is closely following progress being made on the project through weekly meetings with the Chinese contracting companies, Dr. Zainabdeen said. “In these meetings, we remove any obstacles that might hamper the project's progress, which has facilitated the Chinese companies' tasks,” he said. “We have not noticed any delay in the project's work.” Dr. Zainabdeen said partial experimental operation is likely to take place next week, and that companies are working round-the-clock to complete the SR6.65 billion project. Over 3,000 Chinese engineers and laborers and 900 workers from Saudi subcontractors are working in three shifts, he added. In the first stage, about 170,000 local and Gulf pilgrims will use the system, which will be operated at 35 percent of its full capacity. The project is scheduled to be fully operational in time for next year's Haj.
