OREANDA-NEWS. Tata Steel has won  an order to manufacture 60,000 tonnes of high-quality rail for a new high-speed  line linking the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

 The new railway  will allow millions of pilgrims to cross the 276 miles (444km) between the two  cities at speeds of 200mph (320kmh). The line will cross desert, withstanding temperatures  ranging from freezing to 50oC, as well as sand storms, flash  flooding and shifting dunes.

 Gerard Glas, Rail  Sector Head for Tata Steel, said: “This is a prestigious project which will see  the holy cities being linked by rail for the first time.

 “Tata Steel is  delighted to be contributing to this high-speed line, which will have to overcome  some major challenges presented by building a high-capacity rail line across  some of the most extreme terrain in the world.”

Steel for the  project will be made at Tata Steel’s Scunthorpe plant before being rolled into rail  in lengths of 25 metres both there and at the company’s plant in Hayange, Northern  France.

 Work on producing  the rail will start at the end of this year and is expected to continue  throughout 2014.

Tata Steel rail has  already been used successfully in similarly challenging conditions for projects  in Brazil and Mauritania.

 Last year the Saudi  Railways Organization awarded the contract for the final phase of completing,  running and maintaining the Haramain High-Speed Rail Project to a group of Spanish  infrastructure, construction and technology companies.

 Haramain means ‘two  holy places’ in Arabic: Mecca is the location of the revelation of the Quran  and Medina is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad. The new line is expected  to carry around 160,000 people a day - and even more during the Hajj  pilgrimage. They will be transported on a fleet of 35 new high-speed trains.

 The project started  in 2009, with an estimated cost of more than €12 billion. The new rail line is  set to open to the public in late 2014 or early 2015.

 Besides the two holy  cities, the line will have three other stops, two in Jeddah for commuters and  one in Saudi Arabia’s new King Abdullah Economic City, a residential,  industrial and commercial macro-complex that is still being built.

Spanish  construction companies Copasa, Imathia and OHL are responsible for building the  line’s superstructure and the track bases, as well as for the line’s mechanisms.