Qatar to tender long-range rail in 2015

Qatar has decided to tender a contract to construct a long range rail network in 2015 within its ongoing multi-billion-dollar Doha metro project, according to the chief of the Qatari Rail Company (QRC).

“The tender for the long range train will be issued before the end of this year and construction will begin in 2016,” Abdullah Al-Subaei, chairman of QTC’s executive committee and managing director, told Qatar’s Arabic language daily Al-Sharq.

He said nine international consortia are involved in the construction of the Doha Metro project and that 14 tunnels with a combined length of 30 km have been completed.

“21 giant drilling machines are involved in the construction…the length of these tunnels account for nearly 26% of the total distance of the Doha Metro,” he said.

He said phase 1 of the Doha Metro project, the first in the gas-rich Gulf country, involves about 85 km and the construction of 37 underground stations, adding that the project’s total cost is about 65 billion rials (17.8 billion dollars).

In earlier remarks, Al-Subaei said the total metro network would be around 230 km and run as fast as 80 kph while the long-range rail  would stretch nearly 510 km outside Doha and travel at between 220-350 kph.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.