THE Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) in Saudi Arabia has approved a comprehensive plan to overhaul the capital city, keeping wide, open areas in the city centre and building a ring road around them.

“The project will bring about a facelift of downtown Riyadh and make it an outstanding historic, administrative, economic and cultural centre in the kingdom,” said ADA president Ibrahim Al Sultan in comments to the press following an ADA meeting last month.

Al Sultan said the plan also includes development of housing projects in the city centre and pedestrian pathways.
“The central region will have three main railway lines and several bus routes,” he said. It will also house the main railway station, which will be part of the city’s public transport system.

“We’ll create a new cultural, heritage and tourism route, beginning from the King Abdul Aziz Historical Centre to the Government Palace (Qasr Al-Hukm),” the president said.

Al Sultan said 3,088 development projects worth SR278 billion ($74 billion) are being implemented in different parts of the Riyadh region.

Sixty-two agencies have been authorised to follow up on the implementation of these projects. These agencies will also generate proposals for the development of the region and streamline their development.

The ADA meeting approved the rules and regulations for the development of Wadi Haneefa and surrounding valleys. The project aims to make use of the area as a tourist and amusement centre while protecting its agricultural and heritage sites.

The meeting also discussed ADA’s preparations to implement the public transport project while reviewing its specifications, administrative and technical aspects and routes.

Four international consortia are competing to build a metro network in Riyadh. They include 33 companies from 15 countries.

The bidders for the project include Vinci and Alstom of France, Italy’s Ansaldo, Canada’s Bombardier, Germany’s Siemens and StadlerBussnang of Switzerland.

Six railway lines totalling 175 km are planned across Riyadh, which will serve the airport and the King Abdullah Financial District currently under construction. The ADA indicated that it might award the contract to more than one consortium considering the scale of the project.