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S.ravi
Advanced Member
India
4205 Posts |
 Posted - 09/02/2009 : 06:36:50
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On the Dubai Metro, keep food and drink firmly packed up
PTI
AP Sprawling Dubai: Abra boat taxis cross the Dubai creek, as trading dhows dock to load their goods, in this recent image. The soon-to-open Metro will offer a high-speed mobility option in the business-focused desert city.
Besides ticketless travel, eating and drinking will attract fines on the Dubai Metro, which is all set to roll out in just over a week, on September 9.
The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced that fines of 100 dirhams (Rs 1,343) will be levied on anyone caught eating or drinking on the Metro. Penalties will rise to 500 dirhams (Rs 6,716) for offences like destroying, damaging or tampering with devices, equipment or seats of the public transport facility.
A 200 dirhams (Rs 2,686) fine awaits any passenger who tries to use the Metro without a valid ticket.
"Anybody found violating public transport rules will face a fine, for it is important to ensure comfortable travel for every passenger and protection of transport property and facilities," CEO of Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, Mattar Al Tayer, said, adding that a list of fines had been approved by the authorities.
"We cannot allow passengers to damage transport facilities including buses, trains, stations and other services," Al Tayer was quoted as saying by Gulf News. Those involved in vandalism and causing damage to the Metro, public buses and water buses would be dealt with severely.
"Safety and security of passengers is our top priority and there will be no compromise on that," he said.
Apart from more than 660 police officers specially trained to protect passengers and the transport system, there will be officials from the RTA and the operator Serco to ensure safety of passengers.
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S.ravi
Advanced Member
India
4205 Posts |
Posted - 09/09/2009 : 11:59:04
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OffTopic : Dubai Metro launches tonight
Wednesday, September 09, 2009 11:15:00 AM (IST)
Trains undergo last-minute testing outside the Nakheel Metro staton in the
run-up to today's launch.
Dubai, Sep ( (The National): After suffering through four years of disruption
and dislocation caused by rail construction, Dubai’s residents today finally get to welcome the Metro, which many hope will make the city far more
user-friendly.
Launch formalities begin at 7.45 tonight, when VIPs gather in the Galleria of
the Mall of the Emirates before boarding the first train and the Metro’s Red
Line is declared open by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE
and Ruler of Dubai.
The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) also has high expectations. Speaking on
Dubai TV last night, Mattar al Tayer, the board chairman and executive director
of the RTA, said the authority expects the Metro to break even within seven
years.
The RTA also expects a payoff from the Metro in better traffic conditions.
Congestion costs the Dubai economy Dh5.2bn (US$1.4 bn) per year because of lost
time and accidents, Mr al Tayer said, noting that Dubai today has nearly three
times the number of registered vehicles as it had when the Metro project began
in 2005.
Yesterday, as people began to absorb the idea that the end of the project really
was in sight, some began to make plans to let the train take the strain out of
their daily journeys.
“It will be great, believe me,” said Abdul Sabbah, 32, a Jordanian who
commutes by car to work in Media City from his home next to Khalid bin Al Waleed
Station (formerly called the Burjuman Station) in Bur Dubai. “I’ll take it
from my home in Bur Dubai to work. Why not? I can’t find parking anywhere
anymore.”
Mr Sabbah even hoped to take his wife and 11-month-old son for a ride this
evening, after the family had broken their daily Ramadan fast. But he might find
that plan frustrated; confusion over when the Metro would open to the public
remained up until the last minute.
A few hundred lucky winners among the 10,000 who applied to the RTA for Golden
Tickets will ride the first train tonight, but it is unclear whether everyone
else will have to wait until the Metro opens its doors at 5.30 tomorrow morning.
Nevertheless, Dubai was infused with mounting excitement yesterday as the
authorities geared up for tonight’s launch, tying up countless loose ends. And
the tracks were busy with the already familiar blue trains making test runs.
“I’m hoping everybody will use it,” said Ali Abdulaziz, a 32-year-old
Emirati who works in the federal Government.
“As you can see, everything in Dubai is becoming expensive; I pay for petrol
for my car, then Salik [the road toll],” he added. “I’ll take it to work
and when I go out at night.”
Mr Abdulaziz will certainly save money. Depending on the length of a journey,
the cost of a single trip can range from Dh1.8 to Dh6.5, while daily passes cost
Dh14 each.
Some felt that the RTA’s awareness campaign had been deficient. Carol Burns,
50, a Briton who works in the health industry, said there had been rumours –
but no official confirmation or denial – that the Metro would not be available
to the general public on its much-touted opening date of 9/9/09.
“I believe it’s not open for the public tomorrow, but for the day after,”
Mrs Burns, who lives in downtown Burj Dubai, correctly surmised. In fact, only
10 of the 29 stations on the Red Line will be open from the start.
It remains to be seen whether the Metro will, as the RTA hopes, increase the
number of people who use public transportation in the city from below 10 per
cent to 30 per cent. Lucian Deese, 27, a German national who was visiting Dubai,
said he would find it difficult to take the Metro because the emirate was
already heavily dependent on cars.
“Dubai is a car city, and the Metro doesn’t cover a lot of it.”
Some, however, were eagerly looking forward to riding the rails.
For Valerie, 60, a Briton and oil industry employee who did not wish to give her last name, the novelty of riding the advanced public transport system was reason enough to take the Metro. “It’s Dubai; you have to try all the new things at least once,” she said.
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=65419
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S.ravi
Advanced Member
India
4205 Posts |
Posted - 10/13/2009 : 03:09:35
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Gulf rail projects could exceed $60b
Construction of the long-awaited rail network that will link the six members of the GCC is expected to start in 2010 or 2011.
By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter Published: 00:00 October 13, 2009
Dubai Metro seems to be a precursor to GCC-wide railway developments. The long-awaited Gulf network is expected to start in 2010 or 2011. Image Credit: Gulf News Abu Dhabi: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries' proactive approach to building railroad networks, whose estimated cost is more than $60 billion (Dh220 billion), will help boost cross-border trade, cut freight costs and result in faster movement of cargo and passengers, experts have said.
"Rail is safer, faster, cleaner and [a] more economical mode of transportation. Strong logistics networks encourage trade and provide industry with a competitive advantage," Hussain Al Nowais, chairman of the UAE's newly created Union Railway Company, told delegates at a rail conference organised by Meed.
Construction of the long-awaited rail network that will link the six members of the GCC is expected to start in 2010 or 2011. The cost will be shared among the six Gulf states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
In the UAE, the Union Railway Company has estimated it will cost up to Dh30 billion to build a countrywide network of railways by 2016, with a track length of almost 1,400km.
In Dubai, the cost of building the Metro stood at Dh28 billion for the two lines.
If everything proceeds smoothly, the GCC railway network, stretching 2,000km from the Kuwait-Iraq border to Oman, will come online in 2017.
Strategic location
Union Railway leverages the strategic location of the UAE. It aims to connect the UAE to Oman and Saudi Arabia connecting to Sohar in Oman through Al Ain, and connecting to Fujairah in the Eastern region.
It will offer two routes that provide alternative access to the Indian Ocean. The railway will also connect to Saudi Arabia through the Guweifat border and greater GCC and Mena regions.
Union Railway expects to transport 30 million tonnes of bulk and break bulk by 2015. At present, rail transport in Saudi Arabia is managed by the Saudi Railway Organisation, which provides freight services on three main lines totalling 1,018km. There are plans to extend the network to the Red Sea port of Jeddah and eventually, to the borders of Jordan, Yemen, and perhaps all the way to Egypt.
Alstom: Dubai Tram contract
French engineer Alstom said it is in talks for a five-year contract to maintain a 550 million euro (Dh2.9 billion) tram system in Dubai. It added that it is close to signing a high-speed rail project deal in Morocco.
Marc Chagnas, vice president of business development for transport in south Europe, said Alstom was also chasing a tender for a multi-billion dollar high speed rail linking Jeddah with Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia.
Reuters
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S.ravi
Advanced Member
India
4205 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2009 : 10:14:08
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The Delhi Metro is set for the final breakthrough in tunnelling work at Lajpat Nagar on the Central Secretariat- Badarpur line. On Monday the last pre-cast segments (rings) of the underground stretch of Phase-II were erected, following which the final breakthrough will be achieved.
The rings were erected by the last Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) between Jangpura and Lajpat Nagar, a distance of about half a kilometre, and the TBM is now poised for the final breakthrough of Phase-II at Lajpat Nagar on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur line, said a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation spokesperson.
Work involving New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) is already over and only small cut-and-cover portions remain which is expected to be completed in two months. For Phase-II, DMRC used 14 TBMs. The TBMs conducted 30 tunnelling drives in record time and were used on three corridors: Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar, Airport Express Line and Central Secretariat-Badarpur, the spokesperson said.
The Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar corridor comprising 12.53 km is almost fully underground and TBMs were used to build 7.15 km of tunnels. Of this, 4.01 km of the Udyog Bhawan to Green Park stretch was built by TBMs.
In the Green Park-Saket stretch of the Central Secretariat Qutub Minar corridor, two Earth Pressure Balance Machines (EPBMs) were used that completed 3.14 km of tunnel. The average daily rate of tunnelling in this stretch was 14.4 metres.
The 22.7 km long Airport Express Line, of which 15.7 km is underground, consists of 3.8 km built by TBMs. Three TBMs were used to build 2.2 km of tunnel from New Delhi to RML Hospital Circle. One of these TBMs was earlier used on the Green Park- Saket stretch also.
Two more TBMs were used on the Airport Express Line to build 1.6 km of tunnel from Dwarka Sector 21 to Indira Gandhi International Airport. Both the machines were EPBMs and manufactured by Okumura, Japan.
On the 20-km-long Central Secretariat-Badarpur line, the TBM tunnelling was done for a length of 4.2 km. Four EPBMs were employed in different stretches of the corridor from September 2008 to October 2009.
According to the spokesperson, DMRC also employed the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) at two places during Phase-II. The technique was used to build a 2.85 km-long tunnel between Talkotara Garden and Buddha Jayanti Park on the Airport Express Line, which is Indias longest tunnel in an urban area built by NATM. The ground profile comprised of weathered quartzite and schists.
The other place where NATM was used was for a short distance of 185 m. near Qutub Minar in the construction of the Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar corridor, where the technology was used in soft soil conditions for the first time by DMRC.
DMRCs most challenging TBM operation during Phase-II was tunnelling from INA to Jor Bagh as hard unforeseen rock was encountered that resulted in severe damage to some of the cutting tools and caused the cutter wheel to stall in September 2008. After exploring various options, it was decided that replacement of the soft ground cutting wheel of the TBM with a suitable rock cutting wheel was the best option. The work was delayed by about six months but the original tunnel alignment was maintained and the tunnel completed as designed and within tolerance, the spokesperson said.
During Phase-II, DMRC constructed its deepest tunnel so far which passed below the existing tunnel of Central Secretariat Vishwavidyalaya line at Rajiv Chowk. The depth of the new tunnel, which is part of the Airport Express Line, is 45 metres and it is passes 20 to 25 metres below the old tunnel.
About 28 per cent of Delhi Metros Phase-II is underground, i.e., 35 km out of 125 km, up from 20 per cent in Phase-I in which 13.17 km out of 65.1 km was underground.
Keywords: DMRC, New Austrian Tunnelling Method, tunneling work in the Delhi metro, TBM, Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar corrido |
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Dubai Metro, keep food and drink firmly packed up
