Saudi Arabia has appointed the Italferr engineering consultancy, subsidiary of Italian national railway group FS, to undertake design work for the $7 billion Landbridge project.

Development of the planned 950 km double-track mixed traffic line between Riyadh and Jeddah Islamic Port is being managed by Saudi Railway on behalf of the government.

At Riyadh the line would connect with the existing Saudi Railways Organisation line to Dammam, which would be upgraded. This would provide a freight transit time of around 18 hours between the Gulf and Red Sea, compared with five to seven days by sea, according to a report in Saudi Railway Gazette.

Italferr's 14-month contract covers the design of the track, bridges and other structures, passenger and freight facilities, ETCS Level 2 signalling and telecoms, as well as environmental impact assessment and mitigation of the effects of sand.

The Italian company will be assisted by local partner Arabian Consulting Engineering Centre, the report said. – TradeArabia News Service