Around 54-59% of the total works have been completed and the first train would be ready for operations in the last quarter of 2019 said Markus Demmler, senior director of the Qatar Integrated Railway Project (QIRP).
Giving a presentation at a gathering hosted by the Qatar Society of Engineers yesterday, he explained that nearly 61.4% of the work is over in the 13.6km underground stretch of the Red Line from Lusail to Wakrah, and 66.5% of the work on the 8.9km Red Line South elevated route is now complete.
The Lusail Rail Transit is just behind scheduled having completed 44.8% of the overall work. “But we are very confident that the work would be ahead of the schedule shortly as it is fast catching up in different areas of the project,” Demmler said.
The Qatar Rail official also informed that they would be able to achieve the target set on the 486km Long Distance rail operations, connecting the country with Saudi Arabia.
Work on the project, to be built in five phases, comprising 11 stations, is expected to kick off shortly and the first phase would be operational in 2019 as per the current schedule.
The Qatar Rail official also released some figures concerning the logistics movement involved in the construction activities of the Metro so far.
While there were 466,290 movements in transporting 2.8mn sq m of concrete blocks for tunnel construction, earth from the excavation carried out in the sites of the two major Inter-change station sites in Msheireb involved as many as 620,000 truck movements.
