Source:Â www.railwaygazette.com
QATAR: Groundbreaking ceremonies on October 10 marked the start of work on the key interchange station at Msheireb, which will form the hub of the Doha metro network.
Qatar Rail CEO Saad Ahmed al-Muhannadi and the Managing Director of Msheireb Properties Abdulla al-Subaie joined the celebrations, along with QR’s senior programme director Peter Lynch and other local officials. The station is being built as part of Msheireb Properties’ landmark Msheireb Downtown Doha regeneration project.
The Qatar Integrated Railway Project covers four metro lines in Doha, tram routes in West Bay and Lusail, a high speed line and dedicated freight railways. In August Qatar Rail signed five contracts totalling 1·48bn riyals for work on the first phase of the metro, which covers 129 route-km including the Red, Green and Gold lines. According to al-Muhannadi, Phase 1 is due to open in ‘the fourth quarter of 2019’, well ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup .
Contractor HSP Enabling JV, a joint venture of HBK, Saudi Bin Laden Group, and Porr, began work began last month to prepare the alignment and construction sites before the design-and-build contractors to start work in early 2013.
The core city-centre interchange at Msheireb is located at a point where the Red and Green lines will be running in parallel and intersected by the Gold line. The station concourse will be 15Â m below ground, with a direct connection to the retail developments. The Red and Green line platforms will be 22Â m below ground, and Gold line at a depth of about 33Â m. More info
