Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail) has awarded RKH Qitarat, the consortium formed between two French companies RATP Dev and Keolis and local Hamad Group, the €3bn ($3.5bn), 20-year contract to operate and maintain the first phase of the Doha Metro and Lusail light rail networks.

Unsuccessful bidders include Transdev, also of France, and a joint venture of UK’s Arriva and Germany’s DB International (Germany). UK’s Serco earlier pulled out its bid for the contract due to the longer than expected contract award process.

MEED understands the networks will be launched in stages between the end of 2018 and 2020, when construction work is expected to be completed.

The Doha Metro will run over 75 kilometres of track and 37 stations. It will be driverless and completely automated.

It will initially consist of three lines:

• Red line, which will serve Lusail City and the Hamad International airport
• Green line, which will link Al Mansoura, to the east, to Al-Riffa, in the west, and serve 11 stations
• Gold line, which will serve the Khalifa International Stadium

The first part of the metro network will be largely underground and should start operating from the end of 2018. The metro expects to carry 640,000 passengers a day starting from 2021, when it becomes fully operational.

The Lusail light rail network will cover 18km of track and consist of four lines serving 25 stations.

According to RKH Qitarat, the mobilisation phase prior to the launch of both networks will only last a year, which is an extremely short period compared to the standard 18 months for this type of projects.

The consortium said it will seek to recruit up to 100 employees over the next three months, with the total number of employees expected to reach 1,500 within two years.

On 10 December, Qatar Rail received the bids for the extension of the Green Line.