Middle East business information

Habeeb Zain Al-Abidine, deputy minister of Saudi Arabia's municipal and rural affairs ministry, has said that Makkah's monorail project will be partially operational next year and fully operational a year later, Arab News has reported. Studies are now under way on extending the monorail to a station close to the Grand Mosque in Makkah, to link it with the Haramain Railway that connects the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. 'Once we find this project to be a success, we'll apply this system for the transportation of pilgrims even outside the holy sites,' Al-Abidine said.