will metros arrival make a change in carcrazy qatar
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

Will metro's arrival make a change in car-crazy Qatar?

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today Will metro's arrival make a change in car-crazy Qatar?

Qatar's metro
Abu Dhabi - Arab Today

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-crazy 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 nation 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.

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 per cent of the metro will run underground when operational. The station designs have been approved by Amir of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

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.

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 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.

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

will metros arrival make a change in carcrazy qatar will metros arrival make a change in carcrazy qatar



GMT 11:29 2013 Thursday ,09 May

Pakistani women warned not to vote

GMT 09:51 2019 Monday ,19 August

Live a frustrating atmosphere in your career

GMT 12:57 2018 Tuesday ,09 October

Egypt says security forces kill 10 militants in Sinai

GMT 22:37 2015 Saturday ,22 August

Griezmann hands Atletico win over Las Palmas

GMT 14:24 2011 Wednesday ,03 August

Harbhajan, Yuvraj ruled out of England Test series

GMT 14:24 2017 Tuesday ,03 January

Aoun meets FPM Diaspora delegation

GMT 14:41 2013 Wednesday ,31 July

Zambia blocks another website, re-arrests reporter

GMT 23:58 2017 Saturday ,06 May

BACA president pays tribute to late ALECSO chief

GMT 04:18 2014 Wednesday ,08 October

Suspected US drone strikes kill 6 in Pakistan

GMT 08:58 2012 Saturday ,16 June

Nadal out of Halle, Federer struggles into semis

GMT 15:45 2016 Sunday ,25 December

8 raids target several towns in Idlib

GMT 10:47 2017 Friday ,24 February

History beckons for North and Wales against Scotland

GMT 17:36 2017 Saturday ,15 April

Iraqi Christians return to ransacked town with fear

GMT 04:37 2015 Thursday ,22 October

US, Europeans ask UN to investigate Iran missile test

GMT 17:51 2017 Monday ,06 February

Iran ‘will issue visas for US wrestlers’

GMT 11:54 2011 Monday ,23 May

Kuwait bans visas to five nationalities

GMT 11:08 2016 Friday ,26 August

Uber lost at least $1.27bn in first half of year

GMT 12:37 2017 Saturday ,15 July

Kuwait condemns 'terrorist attack' in Egypt's Giza

GMT 21:52 2015 Saturday ,11 April

Brazil leader to visit US on June 30
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday