Dubai Metro to expand to six routes

A fifth and sixth line are to be added to Dubai Metro, Emirates Business has learned. Final plans and a route will be announced early in the new year, the head of the Rail Agency at the Roads and Transports Agency said.

The two extra lines will complement the red and green lines, which are due for completion in 2009 and 2010 respectively, at a cost of Dh15bn. Purple and blue lines are set to be built by 2012 and 2014, and will run the length of Emirates Road and to Al Maktoum Airport.

In an exclusive interview with Emirates Business, Abdul Majid Al Khaja, chief executive of the Rail Agency of the Roads and Transport Authority, said: “We will be announcing the fifth and sixth lines in 2008 once preliminary studies on the routing have been finalised.”

Construction work on the vast Metro is now in the 21st of a projected 49 month build.

The red line, the longest of the two lines in the first phase, is almost 50 per cent complete. Nearly 20 per cent of the 22km green line has been built. Recruitment for staff to operate the system will begin next year under the supervision of Serco, a UK-based international rail management firm, which earlier this year signed a five-year Dh3bn deal with the RTA.

They will run the operations control centre, provide train attendants and all staff at the stations in addition to maintaining rolling stock, track and station facilities, Al Khaja said.

Around 10 monorail lines are also being planned by major developers in Dubai to link the emirate’s communities. Twenty-one Metro stations including Burj Dubai and Mall of the Emirates will be financed by the owners of the adjacent developments.

According to law No.6 from 2006, any public infrastructure such as road, bridge or rail line that connects to a certain development and has direct economic benefit to the developer must be financed by the same developer.

Construction of the 49km purple line will commence in 2009.