Qatar Rail Announces Two Tunnel Boring Machines Complete Mission on Doha Metros Green Line

Doha, February 14 (QNA) - Qatar Rail, which is overseeing the construction of the countrys integrated railway network, celebrates as two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) successfully complete their section of the tunnelling currently taking place on Doha Metros Green Line. This double milestone on the Doha Metro projects Green Line is a further landmark in the companys delivery against its objectives. The Al Rayyan and Al Gharrafa TBMs each went through four breakthroughs before reaching the final destination at Msheireb. The high-tech TBMs were two of 21 used in the first phase of the Doha Metro project which saw Qatar recognised by Guinness World Records for having the largest number of tunnel boring machines operating simultaneously in a single project. Qatar Rail project director Jassim Al Ansari commented on the achievement: "We are delighted that the Al Rayyan and Al Gharrafa TBMs have completed their section of tunnelling on the Green Line on time and to plan and can now be successfully decommissioned. This double milestone for the projects overall progress shows how we are continuing to make good progress against our challenging objectives. To date 30km out of 33km has been tunnelled on the Green Line, a remarkable feat considering we began tunnelling less than eighteen months ago. " The Doha Metros Green Line, which will take passengers from Al Riffa to Al Mansoura had six TBMs working on tunnels over 33 km in length. Starting tunnelling work in September last year, the Al Rayyan and Al Gharrafa TBMs have successfully completed their sections and have been decommissioned. They will now be dismantled and taken back to TBM supplier, Germanys Herrenknecht local office in Doha where their parts will either be recycled or sold off. The remaining four TBMs are expected to complete the work on the Green Line in early April this year. Leatooriya will be the next TBM to complete its mission in the last week of February 2016 when it achieves its breakthrough at the Education City Station, followed shortly by the remaining TBMs. Since operations started the TBMs have gone through a long and exciting journey which started from the Herrencknet warehouse in Berlin to Al Messila site in Doha where they were finally dismantled. The QR logistics team monitored the entire process upon the TBMs arrival at Doha Port, and co-ordinated with the Doha Port Authority, Qatar customs, Milaha, Traffic Police, Lekwiya and numerous contractors to ensure a seamless process from the ship to the site. The QR team as always works around the various current traffic constrains as part of its constant efforts to keep disruptions for Qatars residence at a minimum. In order to minimize the traffic disruption, transportation of the TBMs were done between 1 to 3 AM. A mock trial run was done to eliminate obstruction in the ways and at offloading sites. Discharging plan at Port and Offloading plan at site was in place before the arrival of the TBM. The first phase of the Doha Metro project is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2019, while completion of the Lusail Tram is set for 2020. By 2030, all the three networks Doha Metro, Lusail Tram and the long-distance rail, which will link Qatar with the GCC Rail network are expected to be complete. With the completion of the first phase of the Doha Metro and Lusail Tram, Qatar Rail expects to offer 600,000 passenger trips per day by 2021. By then, 37 metro stations are expected to be complete, with an average journey time of two minutes between adjacent stations. (QNA)