Riyadh: Saudi Public Transport Co (Saptco) Saturday said it has teamed up with an affiliate of France's Regie Aut-onome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) to bid for public transport projects.
Saudi Arabia is spending $400 billion (Dh1.47 trillion) in the five years to end-2013 on development projects which include several transport projects especially tramway, high-speed trains and metros in existing or planned cities in the kingdom.
Saptco yesterday signed a "strategic cooperation agreement" with RATP Developpement that would "enhance the two firms' competitiveness in operating and the maintenance of integrated public transportation networks," the Saudi firm said in a statement on the bourse website.
Opportunities
"[The agreement] is in preparation for existing and future opportunities and projects in the kingdom and in Gulf countries which are witnessing growing development in the field of public transportation," Saptco added.
The two firms will bid for projects in Saudi cities such as Makkah, Riyadh and Madinah as well as in economic cities that are under construction, Saptco said.
Saudi Arabia, a country more than three times the size of France, has one passenger railway of less than 400km linking the capital Riyadh to the eastern city of Dammam. Even the most populous of Saudi cities do not have developed public transport services.
