The project, which will involve six rail lines extending 176 kilometers (110 miles) and carrying electric, driverless trains, is the world’s largest public transport system currently under development, Saudi officials said.
U.S. construction giant Bechtel Corp heads a group which won a $9.45 billion contract to build two lines, the government announced.
A consortium led by Spain’s Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC.MC) won a $7.82 billion contract for three lines, while Italy’s Ansaldo STS (STS.MI) heads a group that won a $5.21 billion order.
Design work will start immediately and construction will begin in the first quarter of 2014, the government said. The project would be completed in 2019.
Flush with cash after more than two years of high oil prices, Saudi Arabia is pumping billions of dollars into infrastructure projects designed to improve living standards and ease social discontent in the wake of the 2011 uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.
Last August the government approved a $16.5 billion plan to modernize the transport system in its holy city of Mecca, including building a bus network and a metro system.
It is also building several other rail systems, including a 2,750 km line running from Riyadh to near the northern border with Jordan.
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