The Transportation and
Communication Sectors represent the life vein of any country. The
infrastructure achievements in these sectors are regarded as one of
the measuring criteria for the progress of nations. In the case of a
big country with differences in topography, like the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, the Transportation and Communication networks are
greatly important, because they are the basic pillars which other
development sectors depend on. Therefore, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, since the days of its founder, King
Abdel Aziz gave them great
importance and care.
In 1950 the number of
telephones in the Kingdom was 8000. Wireless stations have also been
established to connect the Kingdom locally and with the outer-world.
In 1951 work was completed in building the 570
kms railway line from Dammam in
the Eastern Province to Riyadh, the capital passing by a number of
towns and villages. The Ministry of communications was established
in 1952 to be the supervising authority on post, telephone, roads,
railways and ports. This Ministry has replaced the departments which
were supervising them. At the time of establishing this Ministry,
the lengths of the asphalt roads were 237 kms
only.
After the fast expansion in
these services and to alleviate the burdens on the Ministry of
Communications, the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone was
established in 1975, the General Organization for Railway was
established in 1976, and in the same year, the General Organization
for ports was founded, which manage and operate the Kingdomfs sea
ports. The execution of the giant projects under the development
plans has caused accumulations in some ports, but the government has
hurried to expand them and build new quays and has provided them
with the latest equipment for loading, unloading and stocking. This
has been done in a record time, and there are no more vessels
waiting in the ports at all. The Kingdom has eight main ports on the
Red Sea Coast and the Arabian Gulf, which include Jeddah,
Dammam, Jubail,
Yanbu, Jazan,
Dhebafe in
addition to two industrial ports in Jubail
and Yanbu. While the number of quays in
the Saudi ports was (27) in 1975, it reached to (183) in 1998, (45)
of them in the two industrial ports at Jubail
and Yanbu. The quantity of goods handled
in the commercial ports has increased from 1.8 million tons in 1970
G to 26.9 million tons in 1996 G and in the industrial ports it has
increased from 7.7 million tons in 1982 to 52.5 million tons in 1996
G. In 1998 the quantity of handled goods in the commercial and
industrial ports was (91) million tons (with the exception of oil),
around (63) million tons of exports and (28) million tons imports.
Highways:
During the 5 year development
plan, starting in 1970, the government concentrated on the execution
of the roads network which connects the Kingdom regions with each
other and connects the Kingdom with its neighboring countries. By
the end of 1998, the total length of the road networks in the
Kingdom was 45200 kms of highways,
double roads, single road and more than 100000
kms of agricultural roads, while in 1970,
they were 8000 kms of single road and
3500 kms of agricultural roads. More
than (134) billion riyals were spent on the roads, tunnels and
bridge projects executed during this period. The most important
highways executed in accordance with the latest international
specifications are:
@
-
Makkah
Al-Mukaramah / Al-Madinah
Al Munawara Road 421
kms
-
Jeddah /
Makkah Al-Mukaramah
Road 60 kms
-
Riyadh,Taif
Road 752 kms
-
Dammam /
AbuHadryahRoad 161
kms.
- Riyadh /
Sedair / Al-QassimRoad3l7kms
- Riyadh /
Dammam Road383 kms,
- Highway
network in Qassim 141.7
kms
Mountain Roads:
Due to the nature and the rough
mountain topography in the Al-Sarawat
Mountain series in the south-western region of the Kingdom, which
extends 500 kms in width and 1500 in
length, the Ministry of Communications has made several studies to
overcome these difficulties in order to connect the highest points
of the mountains with the Tihama coastal
valleys on the Red Sea. The studies concluded that this can be done
by constructing asphalted roads, bridges and tunnels that go across
the valleys and penetrate the very high mountains. These roads are
called emountain roadsh. Construction of the first one, the
Tihama mountain road, started in 1977.
The Ministry managed to execute other four mountain roads with most
advanced engineering methods. These mountain
roads, which have been opened for traffic, are
Shafar mountain road, Al-Jewah
mountain road, Al-Baha mountain road,
and Dhelef mountain road. By
constructing these mountain roads, it is now possible for the people
to move fast from their villages and housing units on the top of the
mountains to Tihama valleys and vice
versa in a short time, not more than an hour compared to the trip of
one day or more before.
The
Belt
Highways:
The
Ministry of Communications has taken up a plan to construct the belt
highways around the main cities in the Kingdom in order to
facilitate transportation and local traffic inside and around
cities. These roads have been provided with bridges, upper
intersections and lower passage ways, service roads, lighting works,
landscaping works and safety measures. The most important of these
ring roads is the Riyadh ring road which is 63.2 km long, followed
by the roads in Makkah
AlMukaramah (27.1
kms long), in Burayda (85
kms long) and in Jeddah (North of
airport road) 103.6 kms long, in
addition to the road connecting the eastern region cities (108
kms long). The ring roads have helped in
reducing the traffic jams inside and around the cities, and have
reduced accidents and environmental hazards.
The Bridge Between the Kingdom and
Bahrain:
One of
the most important and unique accomplishments, inaugurated by the
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Fahd
Ibn Abdel
Aziz Al-Saud
and HH/Shaikh Isa
Ibn Salman
Al Khaleefa Prince of Bahrain on 24
Rabei Awal
1407 H (November 1986) was a bridge 25 kms
long and at a cost of 2769 million Riyals. This bridge has helped to
activate the transportation and the trade between the two countries.
Air Transportation:
Saudi Arabian Air Lines transport
more than (13) million passengers annually, in addition to 27,000
tons of different goods through its domestic and foreign stations.
Its services cover 25 airports in the Kingdom and 58 foreign
stations in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, and it ranks 27
among 265 companies of the international air line companies, which
are members of the International Air Line Transport Association (IATA).
In addition, it is in the twenty- second position with respect to
goods transported.
In June 1995, Saudi Arabian Air lines celebrated
its golden anniversary. It presently has the biggest air fleet in
the Middle East, which includes 114 operating planes, like Boeing
747, Tristar, Airbus,
a manpower of about 24,000 people, of
which there are 1000 pilots and pilot assistants. Recently, 52
advanced passenger and cargo planes have joined the
Saudia fleet, from the total of 62
planes which will completely arrive by the end of the year 2000 as
stipulated in the contract signed by Prince Sultan
Ibn AbdelAziz,
Second Deputy Premier, Minister of Defense and Aviation, Inspector
General and Chairman of the Organization. The Civil Defense
Presidency of the Ministry of Defense and Aviation supervises the
operation, maintenance and construction of airports in the Kingdom,
which are 25 airports, three of them are
international airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran. The passengers
arriving to and departing from the Kingdom airports are around 25
million every year.
Land Transportation:
The Ministry of Communications is
responsible for planning and supervising this sector and for
coordinating its various elements. The
Ministry issues the licenses and prepares the regulations for
various transportation activities
-
except for the air
transportation which are limited to
Saudi Carriers. The Saudi companies and establishments licensed to
transport individuals and goods on the roads are 2453, of which 617
are licensed to transport passengers in taxis inside cities
(Limousines), and 368 are licensed for small car rental. The
national fleet of trucks is 88,174 trucks, As
for railway transportation, the General Organization for Railways
runs 6 trains daily between Riyadh and Dammam,
3 trains in each direction. The trains transport around
500,000 passengers every year in addition to more than 2 million
tons of different goods.
Public Transportation:
The
Saudi Arabian Public Transport Co. (SAPTCO) was established in 1979
and was licensed for the public transport of passengers in buses
inside the cities and between cities, then added the service of
outer-transportation from and to the Kingdom. The state contributed
30 % of the companyfs capital, amounting to 1000 million Saudi
Riyals. It has a fleet of 2600 buses of different sizes and types.
SAPTCO effectively participates in transporting the Pilgrims and
Omrah seekers by assigning more than a
thousand buses every year to work in the Holy,
places, Makkah AI-Mukaramah
and Al-Madinah Al
Munawarah in addition to running regular international
transport services from the Kingdom cities to Egypt, Jordan, Syria,
UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Marine Transportation:
The
Kingdom is regarded the most active country in the Middle East in
marine transportation works. More than 175 vessels hoist the Saudi
Flag, and 114 companies and establishments work in the marine
transport field. The Government contributes 25 % capital to the
National Saudi Co. for Marine Transport,
it also contributes with 9 Arab countries in the Arabian Marine
Company for Oil Transport as well as contributes to other gulf
countries in the Arabian United Marine Company.
Communication Services:
The
advanced communication network covers the Kingdom regions in spite
of its large area. Towns and villages enjoy advanced post, telephone
and telex services. The following figure indicates the completed
works in this important sectortilltheendofl998G: Total telephone
lines operating in the Kingdom are more than 3 million lines for
various types of communications, Out of which there is one million
mobile telephone lines.
-
The
telephone and postal services cover 6000 cities and villages.
- The
coin telephones and card telephones are more thanl5000.
- 200
countries have telephone communications with the Kingdom.
-
The pager
service was introduced in the Kingdom in 1412 H (19910) and the
number of subscribers are around 645,000
-
There are
272
telegraph offices.
-
There are
458 main post offices, 185 branch
offices, 79 express mail post offices and around 331,000 mail
boxes for subscriber
- In the
first half of 1994, the Ministry of Telegraph, Post and Telephone
contracted for 7 years to carry out the expansion of the
communications network in the Kingdom.
@
The seven year contract
provides for increasing the normal telephone lines by around 1.5
million lines and the execution of the mobile telephone service,
which have started operation, and lines were assigned to subscribers
in the early months of 1996 0. More than one million mobile
telephones are operating now. The Saudi Communication Companies
which is now managing and operating the telephone services in the
Kingdom have contracted for establishing one million lines at the
beginning of the year 20000.
