A SR600 million project to remove railway tracks from residential areas in Al-Ahsa has been finalized and will begin when final approval has been received from the Ministry of Finance, Abdulaziz Bin Muhammad Al-Huqail, head of the Saudi Railways Organization, said here Saturday. The move, he said, has come after complaints from residents of these areas that the constant movement of trains nearby has caused cracks to appear in their houses. Realizing the danger, the Civil Defense has asked the railway organization to relocate the tracks, he added. Al-Huqail said the earlier allocation of funds for the project by the Ministry of Finance proved to be insufficient and, therefore, the railways organization submitted a revised report to the ministry. The relocation of the rail tracks will take at least two years once the project starts, he said. Al-Huqail, meanwhile, revealed that the organization signed a contract with a European company to build eight modern trains expected to be operational by next year. He added that 98 percent of recent train accidents were due to human error, which is why the organization has implemented a new, advanced signaling and switch-control system. He noted that the organization has been working on 35 bridges for vehicular traffic along the railway.
