Agreement signed with Saudi fund for Desert Highway projects

AMMAN — Prime Minister Hani Mulki on Tuesday attended a ceremony to sign agreements to implement projects on the Desert Highway, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The projects, funded by the Saudi Fund for Development, will be implemented by three consortiums from  Jordan and Saudi Arabia, at a cost of $224 million.

During the ceremony, Mulki expressed appreciation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for supporting Jordan through its grant to fund infrastructure projects, including the highway, Petra reported.

The agreement was signed by Public Works Minister Samai Halaseh and representatives of the consortium, in the presence of a delegation from the Saudi fund.

The project will be implemented over 20 months for the whole road, with work carried out in five to six kilometre sections to avoid disruptrion, according to Petra.

The northern part of road is used by 30,000 vehicles per day, while the southern section is used by 10,000 vehicles per day, the news agency said. 

The project includes renovating the entire road, by removing all asphalt layers and building a new highway with three lanes on each side, with the third lane designated for heavy vehicles.

The work will start from the Queen Alia airport intersection, 30km south of Amman, towards the Naqab area near Aqaba, a distance of 220km.  

The concessional financing agreement for the project was signed during the summit meeting between His Majesty King Abdullah and Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz last March, Petra noted.

The Cabinet approved the agreement in June and floated a tender, which was won by consortiums of Jordanian and Saudi companies.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister also attended a ceremony to sign an agreement between the government and the Saudi fund to fund a project for schools, Petra concluded.