Yahoo – AFP,
David Harding, March 9, 2017
Doha (AFP) - Qatar's metro, once completed, will run hundreds of kilometres across ultra-modern Doha, along the coast and into its expanding suburbs. But whether car-mad Qataris will actually use it remains an open question.
 |
| Construction site of a new metro line in Qatar's capital Doha (AFP Photo/ Karim Jaafar) |
Doha (AFP) - Qatar's metro, once completed, will run hundreds of kilometres across ultra-modern Doha, along the coast and into its expanding suburbs. But whether car-mad Qataris will actually use it remains an open question.
Driverless
three-car trains are to serve 100 stations, easing into gleaming newly-built
destinations with names such as Ras Bu Fontas, Al-Shaqab and Legtaifiya.
Now the
main task for those behind the approximately $18-billion project -- in a
country where car is king -- is to ensure it draws enough passengers to justify
the huge outlay.
"We
are not a culture that is used to the metro, not like Europe," said Khaled
Al-Thani, a civil engineer with Qatar Rail, the state-owned company responsible
for the metro.
"This
is all new for us."
The Doha
Metro is a massive venture even by the standards of the energy-rich Gulf desert
emirate where infrastructure mega-projects are commonplace.
Officials
at Qatar Rail are cagey about terming it the world's biggest ongoing
engineering project, preferring to call it one of the largest.
Since
ground was broken in the summer of 2013, a workforce of 41,000 has been
digging, tunnelling and building. Large tracts of land in Doha have been set
aside for a network of tunnels and stations.
Tunnel
boring world record
Qatar even
set a world record for using 21 tunnel boring machines at the same time in
November 2015, the highest number ever recorded.
Ninety
percent of the metro will run underground when operational. The station designs
have been approved by the emir himself, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
 |
Qatar's
metro, once completed, will run hundreds of kilometres across ultra-modern
Doha, along the coast and into its expanding suburbs (AFP Photo/Karim Jaafar)
|
Qatar Rail
says its target is to have completed 70 percent of the network by the end of
2017, with the opening due in late 2019 or early 2020.
"With
metros in other developed countries, when they develop a metro they introduce a
new line, but for us in Qatar, we're introducing a whole network system,"
said Khaled Al-Thani.
Probably
the most symbolic part of the Doha Metro will be a station around 20 kilometres
north of the capital.
Lusail, the
final stop on the Red Line, will serve the $45-billion city emerging from the
desert that will be the venue of football's 2022 World Cup final.
"We
are actualising a vision," said Abdulla Abdul Aziz al-Subai, managing
director of Qatar Rail.
Gridlocked Doha
The company
has begun holding special classes for Doha residents to make them aware of the
metro and to encourage them to use it.
"I'm
very confident that the metro will be a hit," said Thani on an upbeat
note.
"It
takes me approximately one hour every day to go to work. So, with the metro you
have a safe and dependable transportation to reach from point A to point
B."
The target
is to remove 190,000 cars a day off Doha's heavily congested roads.
A report
from the Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (QMIC) found that commuters spent an
average of 109 hours in traffic on the country's roads in 2016.
That was an
increase of seven hours over the previous year and equivalent to around $1.5
billion in losses for the Qatari economy, according to QMIC calculations.
Many
question whether Qataris will swap their beloved cars for public transport, and
say foreign workers -- as in Dubai -- are more likely to fill the carriages.
The
country's population could rise to 3.6 million by 2031, from 2.6 million today,
and Qatar Rail wants 1.65 million people at year to be using the metro by that
time.
"To
change this culture, it will take time," said Abdulla Alsayed Zahran, a
manager with Qatar Rail.
No comments:
Post a Comment