Saudi Arabia has awarded a 6.79 billion riyals ($1.81 billion) railway infrastructure contract to a consortium including China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC), contractors said on Wednesday.

The contract covers ground and civil engineering works for a 450-km-long high-speed rail section linking the Red Sea port city of Jeddah to Medina, the contractors said.

CRCC and two Saudi firms are part of the winning consortium. The Chinese firm's share in the value of the project is 21.25 percent, the contractors said.