Saudi receives bids for railway stations

JEDDAH, July 11 (Reuters) - German transport group Deutsche Bahn, Italy's Astaldi and British firm WS Atkins are among firms bidding to build four stations along a 450-km (280 mile) railway in Saudi Arabia.

France's Alstom, Austria's Strabag, and ST Engineering LTD's electronics arm ST Electornics are also among firms that have joined six consortiums competing for this final phase of the link, the Saudi Railway Organization (SRO) said in an emailed statement on Sunday.

The high-speed Haramain Railway, will link Islam's holliest cities Mecca and Medina to the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah and to King Abdullah Economic City, currently under construction.

Last year British firm Foster and Partners and Buro Happold were awarded a 142 million riyals ($37.9 million) contract to design the four stations while a 6.5 billion riyal contract was awarded to a group led by Al-Rajhi Group to conduct the civil works linked to the railway. (Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by) Keywords: SAUD RAILWAY/BIDS ([e-mail] ; [phone]; Reuters Messaging:[e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.