The proposed Jeddah Metro project will soon materialise and the budget for the project will be approved, a senior official was quoted as saying by an Arab News report.

Mohammed Madani, director-general of roads in Makkah, said in the report that the project will help alleviate traffic congestion in Jeddah.

The project is expected to cost around 35 billion riyals ($9.3 billion).

It will involve 20 tracks that will span 615 km, he said.

Meanwhile, Wasmi Farraj, director of the expansion projects at the Saudi Railway Organization, said the GCC railway project will begin operating by 2018.

Trains will start from Kuwait, travel through Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE and terminate in Oman. The track will span more than 2,000 km, he said.