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Dubai invites metro extension interest

23 October 2023

Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) has invited contractors to express their interest by 24 November in bidding for the contract to expand the 90-kilometre Dubai Metro scheme.

The planned Blue Line will extend the existing Red and Green lines of the metro.

The Green Line extension will commence from its current terminus at Creek Station in the Jadaf area. It will cross over to the Dubai Creek Harbour development and continue through Ras al-Khor, International City, Dubai Silicon Oasis and Academic City before concluding near the Desert Rose project. The line will have 11 stations.

The Red Line extension will connect its existing terminus in Rashidiya to Mirdif City Centre and continue through Mirdif and Warqaa before joining the Green Line extension in International City.

The project was put on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic and was reactivated in early 2022, when UK-based Atkins and Grimshaw, US-based Parsons and France’s Egis restarted design work.

MEED previously reported that Dubai's RTA is expected to issue tender documents for the expansion of Dubai Metro in the fourth quarter of the year.

In October 2022, MEED reported that groups interested in bidding for the project had started to form. They included France’s Alstom with Spain’s FCC and Beijing-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation; Germany’s Siemens with India’s Larsen & Toubro, the local Alec and Belgium’s Besix; and China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) with China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC).

Two billion commuters

Since its public launch on 9 September 2009, the number of riders that have used the Dubai Metro network has exceeded 2 billion, according to the RTA.

The Red Line has transported 1.342 billion commuters, while the Green Line has served 673.531 million passengers.

In 2022, the average daily number of riders on Dubai Metro exceeded 616,000.

The metro extension is part of Dubai’s plans to improve residents' quality of life by cutting journey times as outlined in its newly approved 20-minute city policy.

The last metro project to be completed in Dubai was Route 2020, which connected the Red Line to the Expo 2022 Dubai site. The AED10.6bn ($2.9bn) contract to design and build the line was awarded to a consortium of Alstom, Spain’s Acciona and Turkiye’s Gulermak.

Dubai Metro has also significantly impacted the real estate market, particularly properties within a 15-minute walking distance from metro stations. According to a recent report by CBRE, these properties tend to outperform the broader real estate market in terms of both property value and rental performance.

Further extensions are expected to create new opportunities for businesses and residents alike.

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Yasir Iqbal

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    Colin Foreman