Qatar Rail Project to Provide Employment for 20,000 Workers

Plans are “exactly on schedule” for the ambitious Qatar Rail project, with excavation of tunnels expected to start by the end of 2013.

Ahmed Nassar Al Kowsi, Logistic Director for Qatar Rail said Qatar was expected to announce some 500 projects over the coming decade, with infrastructure development, construction and power grid upgrades offering employment and tendering opportunities.

Qatar Rail will need about 8bn tonnes of steel in the course of the project, an amount equivalent to around 200 Eiffel Towers. Some 17 million cubic metres of material will be excavated from tunnels, an amount which could build seven Egyptian pyramids! This excavated material will be used for back filling stations and landfill.

Awards of contracts for building four rail lines, Red North and South, Green and Gold are expected imminently. Large sections of each of these lines will run underground.

During the peak construction period, Al Kowsi said he expected 20,000 workers would be employed on the project until 2016. Asked about accommodation for so many workers on this and FIFA construction projects, Al Kowsi said this was in the hands of design and building contractors. The FIFA Organising Committee was considering using cruise ships, he added.