Britain’s Balfore Beatty to join Saudi firm in railway bid

Britain’s largest infrastructure contractor Balfore Beatty PLC plans to join Abdullah A. M. Al Khodari Sons Co. to bid for a railway project in the kingdom, it said on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia, which is spending billions on boosting its infrastructure, plans to link its industrial city of Jubail and Dammam port to a network that connects to mining centers through Ras Azzour.

Saudi Railway Co (SAR) said last month it had invited Saudi and global companies to pre-qualify for the Ras Azzour-Jubail link and the deadline for tendering is July 30.

“Abdullah A. M. Al Khodari Sons Company announces the signing of a memorandum of understanding on 26 July with both Balfour Beatty Group Ltd and Saudi Kier Construction Limited for the pre-qualification and the submittal,” the firm said in the statement.

SAR is managing the kingdom’s longest railway project, the 2,400 km North/South railway, and is financed by the state-run Public Investment Fund (PIF).

In May, it started initial operations on a 1,392 km mineral line, linking phosphate mines at Al Jalamid and a bauxite mine at Az-Zabirah to processing facilities at the industrial hub of Ras Azzour on the Gulf coast.