By Satish Kanady
DOHA: A five-member consortium consisting of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corporation, Hitachi Ltd, The Kinki Sharyo Co and Thales received a Letter of Conditional Acceptance from the Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail) for a systems package for the Doha Metro, on Friday.
The newly accepted package calls for turnkey construction of a fully automated driverless metro system. Included are 75 sets of three-car trains, platform screen doors, tracks, a railway yard, and systems for signalling, power distribution, telecommunications and tunnel ventilation. The package is also expected to include maximum 20-year maintenance services for the metro system after its completion, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the leader of the consortium, announced in Japan. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will supply the power distribution system, platform screen doors, tracks and tunnel ventilation work, and will also undertake overall project management and system integration.
Mitsubishi Corporation and Kinki Sharyo will jointly provide the railway cars. Thales will supply the advanced Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling, telecommunications and security, integrated operational control centre and automatic fare collection systems. Hitachi will perform some project management duties and also handle facilities maintenance, including the supply of special maintenance vehicles that comprehensively inspect the safety of infrastructure such as railway tracks and electric train lines.
“The Doha Metro ongoing works are being done according to our timeline that we set at the beginning of the project,” Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Japanese corporate website quoted Qatar Rail’s CEO Saad Ahmed Al Muhannadi as saying.
“In 2013 and 2014, we signed many agreements that reached a remarkable value promising to deliver the best standards of metro railway in the near future. Today, with the five-member Japan consortium led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, we look forward to add more value to our project knowing the international expertise of the Japanese fellows and provide Doha with a fully secure and automated driverless metro system.”
The Doha Metro will run through the city of Doha and will consist of four lines in two phases — Red, Green, Gold and Blue — covering a total distance of 241km with 106 stations, of which 123km will be constructed underground. The new metro system will connect the main areas of Doha, including the Hamad International Airport, the Old City, and newly developing inner city areas such as West Bay and Lusail. Phase 1 of the network will be launched in 2019.
After submitting its bid in March 2014, the consortium underwent 11 months of detailed negotiations. The Letter of Conditional acceptance was received after convincingly demonstrating to the client the consortium’s high technical capabilities and robust track record in the construction of metro systems, the consortium leader said.
The Peninsula
