India is planning to enter Saudi Arabia, starting with the operation of a major mineral railway that will link the country's northern Jalamid region with Ras Azzour, near the industrial port city of Jubail, an Indian minister said.

E Ahamed, India's minister of state for railways, who was speaking on the sidelines of a community reception in Riyadh, said that some projects were 'being identified, while some are in the pipeline'.

The minister said that while it was too early to talk about the projects in which Indian Railways would be involved in, India's state-owned Rites Company would be involved in the operation of the new 1,486-kilometre North-South railway.

'The Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO) and Rites signed a SR278 million ($74 million)agreement earlier,' he was quoted as saying by Arab News.

Rites will help operate the railway, which is used for the transportation of phosphate and bauxite to Ras Azzour near Jubail. Once operational, this railway link would make Saudi Arabia a leading supplier of phosphate and bauxite.

Passenger traffic on the route would start in 2013, with trains passing through Riyadh, Sudair, Qassim, Hail and Al-Jouf, an earlier report had said.

'India's ties in the railway sector, or for that matter in almost all sectors, especially in politics and the economy, are progressively growing,' Ahamed said.