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DOHA: Doha Metro Project has achieved yet another milestone by completing 100km of tunnelling across the city and 41 percent of the whole project.
With this achievement, 90 percent of tunnelling has been completed, with 11km more required to complete all underground sections, Qatar Rail said yesterday.
The 100th kilometre was crossed by a tunnel boring machine (TBM) on the southern section of the Red Line.
Tunnelling on Doha Metro's longest line, the Red Line, is expected to be completed in the near future.
Towards the end of this year, Qatar Rail expects to move from construction into systems installation as track, power supply and signalling starts to be installed. At this point it will also start to work on the architectural finishes of the stations of Doha Metro, said a statement yesterday.
The first phase of the Doha Metro project is expected to be complete in 2020. By 2030, all the three networks - Doha Metro, Lusail Tram and the long-distance rail, which will link Qatar with the GCC Rail network - are expected to be complete.
With the completion of the first phase of the Doha Metro and Lusail Tram, Qatar Rail expects to offer 630,000 passenger trips per day by 2021. By then, 37 metro stations are expected to be complete, with an average journey time of three minutes between adjacent stations.
Qatar Rail Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Eng. Saad Al Muhannadi, Project Director for the Gold Line, Samuel Adair McChesney, along with senior management and members of the Qatar Rail team were present at Al Waab Station on the Gold Line to mark the completion of the 100km of tunnelling.
Workers involved in achieving this milestone also gathered to mark the achievement. "I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all those involved in the completion of tunnelling on the Gold Line which was achieved through nearly 27 million safe man-hours.
"While we strive to deliver our project on time and to schedule, we always aim to do so with the highest levels of occupational health and safety, to help safeguard our employees, partners and the wider public." Dr. Eng. Saad Al Muhannadi.
Tunnelling for Doha Metro's Gold Line was completed with the final breakthrough on May 19 at Msheireb station. The milestone was achieved by TBM Lusail which began work on its section of the line on March 31 last year and covered a total of 4.3km in this time.
TBM Lusail started its mission at Ras Bu Abboud Station and crossed Qatar National Museum Station and Souq Waqif Station before completing its journey at Msheireb Station. Total operational length of the underground sections of the Gold Line is 15km. Samuel Adair McChesney said: "I am extremely proud of the outstanding performance achieved by the six tunnel boring machines (TBMs) during the successful completion of all the tunnelling works on the Gold Line project."
© The Peninsula 2016
