The $16.5bn metro project in the holy city of Makkah will be delayed while its financing is restructured, Reuters reports.
Ali Abdelfattah, chief executive-designate of the Saudi government’s Mecca Mass Rail Transit (MMRT), broke the news at a conference in Dubai, the newswire said.
He gave no indication how long the project would be delayed, but said it remained a top priority for the Saudi government.
He added that government-funded projects in the kingdom were going through some sort of restructuring or replanning but that privately funded schemes remain largely unaffected.
Adelfattah also said that some stations had scaled back to reduce their costs. “Initially we wanted something really iconic, especially for al-Haram main stations, and we found out it would be extremely expensive so we scaled down the finishing, the materials,” he said.
The 88 station Makkah metro system was due to be completed in six phases over about 20 years. Major contracts for the project have not yet been awarded, Reuters said.
Saudi Arabia’s construction sector has been hard hit by the drop in oil prices which has resulted in a dramatic drop in government revenue and therefore spending on infrastructure.