Saudi Arabia's cabinet has decreed that Saudi Railway Company (SAR) will now be the owner of infrastructure of railway projects linking the cities of the kingdom.

The cabinet appointed the Minister of Transport Suleiman Al Hamdan as the chairman of the board of directors of SAR. He succeeds Dr Rumaih Mohammed Al Rumaih who was named president of Saudi Railways Organisation earlier this year.

SAR was set up to build the 2,750-km North-South Railway to connect the Gulf port of Ras Al Khair and Riyadh with mineral deposits and cities in the centre and north of Saudi Arabia. The first 1,392-km line opened in 2011.

SAR is also responsible for the planned 950-km Landbridge rail project linking Riyadh with Jeddah on the Red Sea coast.

SRO operates the Riyadh-Dammam railway and is responsible for the construction of the Haramain high-speed line linking Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah, and the Saudi portion of the planned 2,177-km Gulf Railway.