Saudi Gazette report

MAKKAH — The Makkah municipality has given the go-ahead for the launching of Makkah metro when it began digging tunnels for the ambitious project in the holy city.

About 120 cubic meters of concrete was poured on part of the train track parallelly along King Abdul Aziz street with a length of 3.5 km.

"The pouring of the concrete signals the first step in the launching of the Makkah "B" metro which will cover a distance of 11 km in its initial stage," Mayor Osama Albar said.

The mayor said the first stage will consist of seven stations including the Jamarat terminal which is last station of the Haramain train.

He said the metro will pass through Al-Malawi District and continue to the southeast area of the Grand Mosque where Al-Marwa three-way station for the trains, buses and taxis will be built.

Albar said the train will continue to the west of the Grand Mosque till the reciprocal station intersecting the track of train "C" which starts from Umm Al-Qura University in Al-Abdiyyah neighborhood to pass through Al-Aziziyah District and then to the Al-Madinah road passing through the southern and western areas of the Holy Haram.

He said the metro will go the Sayyidah Aisha Mosque in Al-Taneem District .

"This stage will cover 33 km and will have 15 stations," he said adding that part of the track will be underground and the rest over bridges and flyovers in Al-Biban neighborhood.

The mayor said the metro will continue toward the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway and will pass through the station at King Abdullah Mosque.

"Most of the track in this stage will be underground exceptt for small part which will be over the bridges," he added.