Al Sufouh tramway completion announced
Fresh support from RTA as new consortium named to complete troubled transport project
Dubai’s Al Sufouh tramway project will begin commercial services in 2014, following an announcement from Dubai’s government owned RTA.
Maintenance contracts for the next 13 years have been awarded to a consortium between Alstom and Cofely Besix FM, a group that operates under an ongoing partnership with Dubai’s Belhasa Contracting.
The contract, valued at around US $157, is for maintenance of rolling stock and fixed installations to be delivered in the first phase of the project.
Phase one includes the supply of 11 Citadis tramsets; 10km of track; 13 stations; and electrification, signalling and ticketing equipment.
Maintenance will cover preventative and corrective works; equipment renewal; technical support; and spare part inventories for the trams sets.
The second phase of the project will add a further 14 tramsets and four kilometres of track.
Upon completion in 2014, the Dubai tramway will make the UAE the first Gulf country to operate a tram system.
The first electric trams were tested in Russia in the late 1800s, as a natural progression from cable cars and steam powered trams.
