France's Alstom to supply LRVs to Qatar in 2017

France’s Alstom transport giant will begin supplying light rail vehicles (LRVs) to Qatar’s Lusail tram in 2017 and the project is to be commissioned in 2018, according to a senior Alstom executive.

“We will start supplying LRVs to Lusail City in 2017 and the project is scheduled to be commercially commissioned in 2018,” said Henri Poupart-Lafarge, President of the transport sector and Executive Vice-President of Alstom.

“Our company will cooperate with a number of local contractors to complete some works in this project,” he told Qatar’s Arabic language daily ‘Sharq’.

The paper quoted another Alstom executive as saying dates for completing all stages of the project have already been set by a consortium of Alstom and the Qatari Diar Vinci Construction (QDVC), which won the $2.7-billion turnkey tram contract in June.

Gianluca Erbacci, Alstom Transport’s Managing Director for Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa, also said designs for the project’s last phase would be launched soon.

“The most important thing is to complete the project according to the timetable agreed on between the consortium and Qatar Rail,” he said.

He said the four-line project involves the operation of 35 rail vehicles and the construction of 33-km rail, including an underground 10-km network.

“This is the second largest project to be undertaken by Alstom in the region…it is different from Dubai’s metro as it involves underground construction……power supply for the train will be based underground to keep the city clean,” he said.

The Lusail light train to serve the new city, nearly 15 km north of the capital Qatar, is part of a $multi-billion rail project being executed by gas-rich Qatar. Officials said early this year contracts worth nearly QR30 billion ($8.2bn) have already been awarded for the project, which also involves Doha Metro.

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