This August 26, 2015 picture shows the construction site of the Riyadh’s $22.5 billion metro system.

The Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) celebrated on Monday morning the arrival of the giant machine called “Jazlah” which is used for digging tunnels for the Riyadh Metro project

“We celebrate today the arrival of the drilling machine Jazlah at one of the train stations in Riyadh in the presence of the Italian premier,” said Ibrahim bin Mohammed Sultan, member of the ADA planning board. Jazlah is the fifth of seven machines needed for the project. Among the celebrants was Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who is currently in Saudi Arabia. He was welcomed by Sultan and other ADA officials and leaders of global companies.

“We haven’t gotten to the advance stages of implementing the Riyadh Metro project but we thank Custodian of the Two Mosques King Salman and Riyadh Gov. Prince Faisal bin Bandar for their support,” he said. He added that “it’s a giant project that affects all aspects of life in the city, which operates the program timetable.”

He noted that some 24 percent of the project has so far been achieved, adding that some 800 Saudi engineers are involved in the project.

The station is on the orange line of the King Abdulaziz Project for Public Transportation. It goes all the way to the Madinah-Prince Saad Abdulrahman Street in the Saudi capital.

Those present on the occasion watched the machine begin work at the terminal wall located at depth of 25 meters underground.

The machine will bore the tunnel for the orange line route from south of Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium in the Malaz district.

After penetrating the terminal wall, Jazlah continued its way down, digging a tunnel with a length of 6.5 km on the orange line which is 40.7 km long.

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