Dubai: The trial runs on Dubai Tram will begin on Sunday with the initial batch of 11 trains that arrived in Dubai and have been put on the rail tracks, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced.
On Tuesday, French Minister for Foreign Trade Nicole Bricq visited the Al Sufouh Depot to inspect the first batch of trams delivered last month. Additional 14 trains will join the fleet in phase two of the project.
In the initial run, the trams will operate between two kilometres from Al Sufouh Depot near the Police Academy and the Knowledge Village.
A senior RTA official told Gulf News that all the technical testing on the trams was successfully completed ahead of the trial runs.
The trial runs have been divided into three zones, with the first zone covering the area between Al Sufouh Depot and Knowledge Village. The zone covers two stations.
In the next stage, which will begin on April 16, the trial run will extend to zone two, which will cover four more stations and three quarters of the 10.6km track that will be operational from November 2014.
In the third stage, beginning from June 14, the trial run will cover the entire stretch, extending up to Dubai Marina, including all 11 stations.
The 14.6-kilometre Dubai Tram project is being undertaken by French firm Asltom, including track laying, station building and supplying the trams.
The entire tram network will comprise 17 stations, with seven stations expected to be completed in the next phase.
In phase one, seven of the 11 stations will be at grade and the rest will be elevated. Each station will measure 44 metres.
Each tram will also measure 44 metres, and will have seven coaches with a capacity to accommodate 300 passengers. The tram will have a gold suite and one cabin designated for women and children, as well as a silver-class cabin.
The network is expected to have about 27,000 passengers a day at the start of operations in 2014, and numbers are expected to hit 66,000 passengers a day by 2020.
The RTA had recently appointed Dubai Metro operator Serco as the operator of Dubai Tram.
The Dh105 million contract mandated Serco to recruit and train employees apart from managing the daily operations.
The contract duration will be for 75 months with a possibility of extension.
