DOHA: Qatar Rail yesterday announced completion of tunnelling on Doha Metro’s Green Line with the breakthrough of tunnel boring machine (TBM) Al Messila at Education City station.
Education City is the last underground station on the Green Line before moving towards the above ground station Al Riffa. This major milestone for Doha Metro comes less than 10 days after Qatar Rail celebrated completion of tunnelling on the northern section of the Red Line.
With the construction progress at Green Line’s underground station at 57 percent and overall tunnelling of Doha Metro at 87 percent, these achievements are a further testament to the progress of the project.
Dr Engineer Saad Al Muhannadi, Qatar Rail Chief Executive Officer said: “Across the project as a whole, we are continuing to make significant progress and as we prepare to move from the construction to systems and architectural works, we are delighted to have been able to achieve all this within the timelines and budgets allocated for this monumental endeavour. This has been possible due to the hard work and dedication of all parties involved.”
Tunnelling on the Doha Metro Green Line began in September 2014 with six TBMs used to complete the 22km operational line which has 10 underground stations and one above ground. The Green Line will run for 19km beneath ground level and 3km above ground.
The Al Messila TBM which completed tunnelling on the Green Line was launched in January, 2015 and passed through Al Rayyan Al Qadeem, Al Shaqab and Qatar National Library before reaching Education City Station.
Once service started passengers can take the Green Line starting from Al Mansoura Station in the east to Al Riffa Station in the west, passing through 11 stations. It will take approximately 24 minutes to travel the whole line.
Completion of tunneling on Doha Metro’s Gold Line is expected soon and its longest line, the Red Line will also finish its tunnels later this year.
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. The first phase of the Doha Metro project is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2019, while completion of the Lusail Tram is set for 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 600,000 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.The Peninsula
