As it moves full-speed ahead to finish construction of the first phase of the Doha Metro in 2018, Qatar Rail has awarded one of its largest rail contracts yet to a Greek-led consortium, the Athens-based company announced on Thursday.
In a statement on its website, Ellaktor said that subsidiary Aktor had signed a $4.4 billion contract for the design and construction of Doha’s “Gold Line Underground.”
It called the project “the largest singular construction package of the Doha Metro,” and said the project would take 54 months, with a completion date set for August 2018.
Previously, Qatar Rail had said the first phase of the Doha Metro would be completed in 2017, and be in the testing phase for two years before opening to passenger traffic in 2019.
Areas that would be covered by the 37 stations open at that time include Hamad International Airport (which is expected to soft launch next week), the Msheireb Downtown Doha project, Education City, West Bay and Lusail, where passengers can transfer to light-rail vehicles that will connect up to Al Khor.
More than $30 billion worth of contracts have already been awarded to dozens of companies for work on Qatar’s public transportation system. A 2012 Zawya report estimates that the country plans to spend more on railways in the next decade than any other Gulf nation, to the tune of $41.8 billion.
Details
Work led by Aktor, which has not disclosed its partners on the project, will include:
- Boring a total of 32km of tunnel with six tunnel boring machines;
- Constructing 13 underground stations;
- Excavation work for the stations; and
- Setting up traffic and utility diversions.
The east-west Gold Line would start at Villaggio mall and run beneath Al Waab Street. It then follows the road’s northward bend at the Doha Expressway before turning east again at Al Sadd Street.
It curves to cross C-Ring slightly north of Al Sadd Street before veering southeast, cutting through residential areas of Fereej bin Mahmoud and then following Qatari bin Al Fujaah Street and Al Adhwaa Street into the Msheireb station.
From there, it runs below Wadi Msheireb Street/Ali bin Abdullah Street before curving south to follow Ras Abu Abboud Street past the northern end of Doha International Airport’s runway.
Thoughts?
Good luck getting finished by 2022!
Time to look for accommodation within a few minutes walk from the office as it will be soon impossible to drive anywhere in Doha with all these construction works going on. Yes, I appreciate that it is all necessary as part of the Qatar vision but life must be allowed to go on otherwise no one will be here to see it.
Agreed, In nearly a decade of living here I’ve had no peace from the constant construction zone that the whole of Doha has become. Getting a bit tiring.
Aktor is by far one of the worst construction companies ever…good luck with that!!
cheap though! 🙂
It is quite surprising that, for such a big project, companies like Siemens, Alstom and the likes are not taking part, and one Greek company that has limited international presence and a small portfolio of projects is instead chosen. Hopefully they will not regret the choice because this is not the kind of choices you can easily change and rectify later.
Indeed…it doesn’t make any sense to me too…
But to be honest all the other big players have taken parts of the metro (other lines).
But AKTOR??? Seriously Qatar…?
They are the most corrupted greek company, they are the champions of bribery in Greece!
Gentlemen,
Firstly, i would like to clarify that i do not speak on behalf of Aktor, since i have never belonged to the Company’s employees but, being a Greek Civil Engineer working in major International Contractors, i have a personal opinion regarding the Company’s performance.
However, i would like to underline that i am particularly surprised by the certainty of the people commenting below.
Summarizing the comments, the argument made is that Aktor represents ”one of the worst, cheap, corrupted and inexperienced construction Companies ever..” and that Qatar should never award the Project to them.
And my question is the following:
Do you, honorable gentlemen (or ladies), make the above statements based on personal experience? do you really know the company so well in order to proudly express your statements in such an absolute way? if you do, you have my sincere apologies.
If you don’t, however, it is safe to assume that your arguments are based on nationality discriminating arguments, following blurry Media coverage, which may be both invalid and irrational. In this case, reconsidering these thoughts, at least until they prove to be right, and Aktor fails eventually to deliver, could be an option.
We are talking about a JV here not just Aktor. There are other international companies in Gold Line JV. Who are the others? Anyone knows?