Indra, a leading consulting and technology multinational based in Spain, has signed a €266-million ($314 million) contract to implement the entire ticketing and access control technology for the new public transportation system currently under construction in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA), the company responsible for modernising Riyadh's infrastructure, has chosen Indra's offer as a winning bid after an international public tender involving 10 leading multinational companies.

This is the biggest ticketing project in the world till date and the project will be completed in 54 months. The contract also includes maintenance and technological assistance for 10 years.

Riyadh Governor Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, chairman of the High
Comission for the Development of Arriyadh and chairman of the High Ministerial Committee
for the Riyadh Public Transport Project, and Indra's executive vice president Eduardo Bonet
signed the contract in Riyadh.

Indra will develop the entire advanced pricing management system for the city's public transportation network. This includes a ticketing control centre with information from the various systems, financial management software, the operator clearing house, and other value-added systems for commercial management.

Indra will provide onboard ticket sale and validation systems for the entire public bus network, which will include around 800 to 1,000 vehicles; and the sale and access control systems for more than 80 stations in six subway lines (this network will total 175 km and serve about six million users).

Thanks to contactless technology, users will be able to access the entire public transportation system using only one card, which they can validate quickly and easily by placing it near the reader. This solution will also include one-way tickets with a bar code (similar to the tickets for the high-speed service in Spain) and a cell phone payment application that uses NFC (Near Field Communication), the company said.

This project strengthens Indra's position in the Middle East, where major infrastructure plans
are in the pipeline for the next few years, the company said.

Additionally, it represents an important milestone in the transport and traffic market of Saudi Arabia, where the multinational is the technological partner of the high-speed railroad project between Madinah and Makkah.

In the case of the Makkah-Madinah railway, the multinational is responsible for the management, telecommunication, security, ticketing and ICT systems, totaling €440 million ($520 million). - TradeArabia News Service