Mammoth work on Dubai Metro chugs on

Dubai: Residents and tourists in Dubai will have to wait 18 months to ride the trains, with work on the Dubai Metro entering its 31st month - out of 49 total - of construction.

Around 25,000 people, from engineers to labourers, are busy day and night to deliver the project on schedule to meet the September 9, 2009 deadline to start operation.

Some 72 per cent of the work on the 52.1km Red Line, which runs from Al Qusais to Jebel Ali, and 12 per cent of the work on the Green Line, which runs from Rashidiya to Jaddaf along the Dubai Creek, has been completed. The Dh15.5 billion Dubai Metro Project-the world's largest automated driverless metro system, started in October 2005.

Gulf News, the first newspaper to get access to the construction sites of the Dubai Metro, brings you exclusive pictures of the underground and elevated stations, tunnels being excavated under the Dubai Creek and construction of the elevated track.

Locations

A map of the Red and Green Lines has also been created to explain the route of the Metro and inform residents about the locations of stations.

All stations will have facilities such as parking, taxi lay-bys, and public transport links to other modes of transport to ensure smooth journeys for all.