Work on the first phase of the planned Makkah metro network in Saudi Arabia is expected to begin in 2016, a senior official was quoted as saying.

Khaled Shamouth, chairman of Public Transport Authority in Makkah, told the the Fourth UITP Mena Congress and Exhibition in Dubai that the project will cover 188km in the holy city, a report in the Gulf News said.

Makkah welcomes more than nine million Haj and Umrah pilgrims annually in addition to the city’s permanent population of 1.6 million, the report said.

The Metro project will have 88 stations on four lanes.

Complementing the metro network will be a modern bus service, initially operated by 400 buses on 100 routes, he said.