India’s rail sector is planning to enter Saudi Arabia, starting with the operation of a major mineral railway that will link the country’s northern Jalamid region with Ras Azzour, near the industrial port city of Jubail, an Indian minister said.

E Ahmed, India’s minister of state for railways, who was speaking on the sidelines of a community reception in Riyadh, said that some projects were “being identified, while some are in the pipeline.”

The minister said that while it was too early to talk about the projects in which Indian Railways would be involved, India’s state-owned Rites company would be involved in the operation of the new 1,486 km North-South railway.

“The Saudi Railways Organisation (SRO) and Rites signed a SR278 million ($74 million) agreement earlier,” he was quoted by media.

Rites provides comprehensive engineering, consultancy and project management services in the transport infrastructure sector under a single roof. Presently, it has over 600 on going projects in India and over 30 projects overseas.

Rites will help operate the Saudi railway, which will be used for the transportation of phosphate and bauxite to Ras Azzour near Jubail. Once operational, this railway link will make Saudi Arabia a leading supplier of phosphate and bauxite.

Passenger traffic on the route will start in 2013 with trains passing through Riyadh, Sudair, Qassim, Hail and Al-Jouf, an earlier report had said.

“Indo-Saudi ties in the railway sector, or for that matter in almost all sectors, especially in politics and the economy, are progressively growing,” Ahmed said.