Business | General
RTA dismisses claims of delay in Dubai Metro work
Denies rumours of delayed payments to construction consortium
- By Duraid Al Baik, Associate Editor, and Nadia Saleem, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 January 8, 2010
Dubai : A senior official from the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has denied reports that work on Dubai Metro will be suspended because of delayed payments to the construction consortium.
"The report is baseless. The work is going on in the project as normal as it can be," Matar Al Tayer, chairman, RTA told Gulf News.
In a later statement, the RTA confirmed that "Dubai Rail Link (DURL) Consortium is continuing with the construction works of the Dubai Metro Project according to the planned schedule, and work is progressing normally at various sites on both the Red and Green Lines. This is reflected by the … opening of the station neighbouring Burj Khalifa on January 3, 2010, four days ago.
"RTA also reiterates its contractual commitments to the flow of payments in accordance with the progress of work made in the project."
The RTA is currently building the Dubai Metro's Green Line, expected to be operational within a few months. The Red Line started operations in September and the rest of its stations are expected to be opened in February.
Reports earlier yesterday claimed that the Japanese-Turkish Metro Joint Venture, a consortium of four Japanese general contractors and one Turkish firm, is "set to suspend work" on the Dubai Metro over delayed payments for construction.
The consortium, headed by general contractor Obayashi Corp, has received about 490 billion yen (Dh19.5 billion) worth of orders to build the Metro from RTA.
Last year the RTA said the construction cost of the Dubai Metro project had gone up to about Dh28 billion after changes in the scale and design of the project.
Others involved
The other Japanese consortium members are general contractor Kajima Corp, Turkey's Yapi Merkezi Insaat Ve Sanati AS, Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and trading house Mitsubishi Corp.
When contacted by Gulf News, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries spokesperson said the company is not in the position to say anything right now.
The Dubai Metro project, with a length of 76 kilometres, began construction in August 2005 and opened the Red Line last September 9.
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