Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) has entered into a 15-year contract with Franco-Japanese consortium comprising three companies - Keolis Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering and Mitsubishi to operate its driverless metro and tram networks. The nine-year contract, with a possible six-year extension, is pegged at €125m (542 million dirhams) annually.
Keolis will head the joint venture (JV) project with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering (MHI) and Mitsubishi Corporation. Both partners have a long association with RTA. The group will manage Dubai’s metro and tram network from September 2021.
Commenting on the contract, Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, director-general, chairman of the board of executive directors, RTA said, “We at Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority are keen on ensuring the highest standards of operation, maintenance, security and safety for the metro and tram riders and achieving competitive performance indicators of operation and punctuality of journeys besides improving the quality of services provided to metro and tram riders.”
Under the arrangement, the group will start the operation and maintenance services of the Dubai Metro Red and Green lines as well as Route 2020. It will also manage the operation of Dubai Tram, and all assets of the metro and tram networks including trains, control centres, stations and the associated infrastructure.
The Dubai Metro has two lines (including Route 2020) spanning a total of 90km, including 15.8km of tunnel, and 53 fully air-conditioned stations offering facilities ranging from retail outlets to wi-fi.
With infrastructure of 129 metro trainsets, the metro network provides easy access to key locations such as Dubai International Airport, Burj Khalifa, Dubai Healthcare City and the Expo 2020 site, where the United Arab Emirates is set to host an exceptional edition of the World Expo event for six months from October 2021.
Keolis manages several other automated metro networks across the world, which includes Lyon and Rennes in France, Doha (Qatar), Shanghai (China) and Hyderabad (India).