RIYADH – A high-speed railway linking holy city Makkah and Medina in SaudiArabia, which has been plagued by delays, will finally start operating inSeptember, the Spanish consortium building the project said Thursday.

The railway linking Islam´s holiest cities, which was initially scheduledto open at the end of 2016, had a cost overrun of 210 million euros whichSaudi Arabia has agreed to pay, the Al-Shoula consortium added in astatement.

It will begin operating in September with four trains per week, beforeoffering daily service by September 2019.

Saudi Arabia in 2011 awarded the contract worth 6.7 billion euros ($7.1billion) to the consortium of 12 Spanish companies and two Saudi firms forthe project which aims to improve transport between the two cities duringthe annual hajj pilgrimage.

The contract — one of the biggest Spanish firms have ever undertakenabroad — is for the laying of the 444 kilometres (275 miles) of trackbetween Makkah and Medina, providing 35 trains and maintaining the line for12 years.

When it is finished, the rail link will be able to move 166,000 passengersper day.

But the project has run into challenges that have added to its costs,leading to disagreements among members of the consortium over who isresponsible for resolving them and paying for the cost overruns.

The rail line crosses the Arabian Desert, where sandstorms are frequent andlarge dunes can suddenly form, which has added to the difficulties incompleting the project.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visit to Spain last month played a”key” role in resolving the disagreements over the delays in completing theproject, Spanish daily El Mundo reported earlier on Thursday.

The leading firms in the consortium — Spain´s rail company Renfe, trainmaker Talgo, and state track operator Adif — have extensive experiencewith Spain´s own high-speed network, the world´s second largest afterChina´s. – APP/AFP