The prequalification process for the operation and facility management contract for the Doha Metro is making significant progress, with tenders due to be floated by mid-2016, according to Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail) managing director Abdulla al-Subaie.

This follows the final round of clarification meetings, which was conducted between May and July, between Qatar Rail and the interested bidders. The meetings were conducted for the operations and maintenance (O&M) contract for both the Doha Metro and the Lusail Light Rail Transit (LRT) schemes.

Speaking at MEED’s Qatar Transport Forum 2015, Al-Subaie also said the prequalification process for the metro’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) and architectural works will be closing shortly. Submissions for expressions of interest (EoIs) for architectural finishes for the first phase of the Doha Metro was scheduled to close on 23 August.

Al-Subaie told the forum that about 50 per cent of the 113-kilometre tunnelling work for the Doha Metro has been completed, with 21 tunnel boring machines (TBM) working underground “at full speed”.

The first TBMs arrived in November 2014. In late February, a TBM working on the Red Line North stopped working after hitting a pocket of underground water, which flooded both tunnel and machine. The same machine restarted in late May. Qatar Rail has said the incident did not cause a material delay in terms of the construction of the Red Line North.

A consortium of Italy’s Salini, South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction and the local Al-Misnad Galfar Engineering & Contracting won the contract to complete the underground sections of the Red Line North in April 2013. 

The first phase of the Doha Metro, primarily the Red Line, is scheduled for completion by 2019.