01 November 2015

Kuwait has announced that the work  on the long-delayed $7-billion metro project will finally kick off next year, said a report.

The announcement comes following the recent appointment of new advisers for the ambitious project, reported The National.

The project is back on track, with new advisers appointed and bidding likely to start next year, the report said, citing a senior official.

“We are in the process of updating feasibility studies for the project and have appointed new advisers. We are planning to start the procurement in the first quarter of 2016,” Fatima Al Kandari, a project manager at the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (Kapp) was quoted as saying in the report.

“The metro would have 160 km of rail lines and 68 stations – 60 per cent of that will be underground,” said Al Kandari, while speaking on the sidelines of the Mena Rail and Metro Summit in Dubai, UAE, recently.

She said the metro will be completed in five phases. The first phase, the Red Line, would run from a rail freight depot (being built for use on the GCC rail network) and Kuwait International Airport into Kuwait City, she added.

Plans for Kuwait’s metro had been first announced in 2006 and the initial feasibility study was handed to the government in 2008. However, it was subsequently put on hold, the report said.

Unveiling the future plans, Al Kandari said work would be split into four infrastructure packages and a combined deal for systems and rolling stock.

Contracts will be signed with a district cooling service provider, a management firm to oversee construction and an operator for the rail network.

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