By Ashfaq Ahmed, Chief Reporter www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: The Green Line of the Dubai Metro will be completed according to revised plans as the construction work is not hampered due to any payment issues, said a senior official.
Quashing rumours of further delay in the opening of the Green Line, Abdul Mohsin Ebrahim Younus, CEO of Strategy and Corporate Governance at the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said there would be no further delay as the construction work would be completed in August according to revised plans.
“There are also no payment problems because the payments have also been rescheduled according to the revised completion plan of the Line,” he told Gulf News.
The Green Line of the Metro was originally scheduled to open in March this year but the completion period was extended until August 2011 following the economic downturn and slowdown in completion of several development projects. The Red Line of the Metro was opened on schedule on September 9, 2009 and has got very positive response from commuters.
Driverless train system
Meanwhile, the trial run on the Green Line has already started to test the track which has already been completed. The 23-kilometre-long Green Line runs from Al Ghusais near Emirates Road to Al Jaddaf (near Business Bay Crossing) passing through the congested Central Business District (CBD) areas of Deira and Bur Dubai. It will link with the Red Line at Khalid Bin Al Waleed and Union Stations, allowing passengers to change trains.
The Green Line is the second track for Dubai Metro project — the longest driverless automatic train system with total length of 76 kilometres. It includes the 52.1 kilometre long Red Line linking areas from Al Rashidiya to Jebel Ali Free Zone. Since the Red Line was opened it has been a big success with more than 34 million passengers using it as at the middle of this month.
The Green Line has 18 stations including 12 elevated and six underground. Some 7.9 kilometres of the total length of 23 kilometres long Green Line is underground.
There is a plan to extend the Green Line by 20 kilometres from Al Jaddaf to Dubai Academic City through International City.
There is also a parking lot of about 2,375 vehicles at Etisalat Station in Al Ghusais to provide a park and ride facility for commuters, especially those coming from Sharjah and other northern emirates.
The Dubai Metro which cost the RTA around Dh28 billion, is part of the RTA’s plans to have a comprehensive integrated public transport system in a bid to reduce traffic congestion and curtail the use of private cars.
Partnership: Pakistan metro plans
The Pakistan government is planning to have the Metro system in Lahore similar to the one in Dubai, a Pakistani diplomat has said.
A diplomat at the Pakistan Embassy in Abu Dhabi said that Chief Minister of Punjab province in Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif who is leading a top level business delegation to Dubai in December to attract investors to Punjab, will talk to the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) for possible partnership on the Metro project.
“Sharif will meet the RTA official and visit the Dubai Metro as he is interested in having a similar Metro system in Lahore, which is facing acute traffic congestion,” said the diplomat who does not want to reveal his name.
Abdul Mohsin Ebrahim Younus, CEO of Strategy and Corporate Governance at the RTA, confirmed the upcoming meeting with the Pakistani delegation and said the RTA was fully capable to provide its expertise to carry out such projects in Pakistan following international practices.
