Qatar Rail has said that it expects to award contracts for a rail operator and a facilities management contract to run all of Doha Metro’s stations this year, as well as the completion of all of the US$36 billion project’s track work. The organisation said that civil works on the project are now complete, and that the 41,000 people working on the project were now focusing on the trickier aspects such as the installation of mechanical and electrical plant, railway control systems and station fit-outs.
Meanwhile, despite cancelling the contract of a consortium that was building Doha Metro's major stations in May 2016, Qatar Rail chief executive Saad Al Muhannadi said that foundation works for all stations were complete and platform slabs are in place on five elevated stations. He said there had been "seamless progress on the major stations contract, notwithstanding the termination of the old contractor".
Qatar Rail also expects the first of four trains running on the network to arrive in Doha, and for the project to hit the 70 per cent completion mark in 2017 (the network is due to be up and running in 2020).
Abdulla Al Subaie, the chairman of Qatar Rail’s executive committee, said the country’s rail development programme is entering its “most critical phase”.
“We will be soon transitioning from a rail developer to a rail operator,” he said.
It is also launching a business development strategy that will include property around the metro’s stations, as well as retail units within them and advertising space.
Last month, Qatar’s government committed to spending 21 per cent of its expansionary budget of 198.4bn riyals (Dh200bn) purely on transport projects, while 47 per cent was allocated to 2022 Fifa World Cup projects. The second phase of Hamad International Airport is also likely to get under way this year, boosting the airport’s annual capacity to 30 million passengers when complete in 2020.
BMI Research, a Fitch Group company, has said that it expects Qatar’s transport infrastructure market to grow by 11.5 per cent this year.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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