MANAMA: Al Hilal Group, the GCC’s leading pan-regional publisher, has released the first in a planned series of reports on one of the world’s biggest infrastructure projects – the Riyadh Metro.
Fast Track the Future is a 208-page publication which documents the vision, scale and complexity of the $23 billion rail and multimillion-dollar bus project which is the cornerstone of the development and future growth of the Saudi Capital.
When completed, the Riyadh Metro will have involved the laying of 176km of rail track for six metro lines and the building of 85 stations.
In addition, there will be the integration of 842 state-of-the-art buses across 24 bus lines with 2,860 bus stops and stations extending over 1,900km.
The implementation of the public transport project will provide a sophisticated transport infrastructure designed to cater for Riyadh’s burgeoning population of close to nine million people by 2030.
“The book is the result of nine months of intensive research carried out by our Gulf Projects Team which involved interviewing over 100 individuals involved in the building of the King Abdulaziz Project for Riyadh Public Transport,” said Al Hilal Group managing director Ronnie Middleton.
“We are proud that the Riyadh Development Authority (ADA) entrusted us with the task of compiling a unique record of the progress and achievements of this amazing project which is currently 75pc complete.”
Al Hilal’s publishing experience of over 40 years in this region has seen the company develop a media portfolio which includes the Gulf Daily News and Gulf Weekly news media in Bahrain.
In addition the company publishes the GCC’s leading construction (Gulf Construction), industry (Gulf Industry), oil and gas (Oil & Gas News-OGN) and travel (Travel & Tourism News-TTN) trade media which are part of an integrated publishing platform combining print, online, social media and business referrals through the group’s unique and rapidly growing business portal called the Arabian Business Community (ABC).
The ABC portal, with 14 regional editions, is now one of the region’s leading business information resources providing companies on its database with more than 5m enquiries per year.
“Al Hilal’s experience as the publisher of a number of market leading trade journals including Gulf Construction and Gulf Industry made us a natural choice to document this ground-breaking initiative. We feel that this publication provides a unique insight with facts, information and pictorial views which have not been widely available for all those interested in the project,” commented Mr Middleton.
Fast Track to the Future comes in both Arabic and English editions in hard and soft back versions.
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