With over half of the Middle Eastern population living in the cities and the number expected to double in less than 20 years, the governments have now shifted their focus to boosting urban mass transport, said experts.

Metros, tram systems and bus networks are now seen as essential if Middle Eastern cities are to deliver a desirable and sustainable living environment for its residents, stated urban development experts ahead of a transport industry summit.

The 11th annual Mena Rail & Metro Summit will kick off on October 5 and run for the next two days at the Address Hotel, Dubai Marina in Dubai, UAE.

The event, being organised by Federal Transport Authority (FTA), is aimed at driving forward the development of a GCC rail network.

It will help encourage Middle East states to introduce new urban mass public transport and high-tech metro networks in particular as the best way to cope with the accelerating population growth in the cities of the region, said the organisers.

“Urban mass transport is now at the top of the agenda for transport policymakers across the Middle East,” remarked Harj Dhaliwal, Parsons vice president and MEA rail sector manager.

“The challenges for rail in the region are now similar to those for megaprojects elsewhere in the world, where value for money is a key driver. It is essential to develop public-private partnerships, find financing solutions that meet a project’s short-term requirements, and use processes that deliver," noted Dhaliwal, a panellist for the opening day of the summit.

To be held under the patronage of Dr Abdullah bin Mohammed Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Minister of Public Works and FTA chairman, the summit aims to encourage transport and traffic ministries in the GCC to maintain efforts to establish a rail network for GCC countries by supporting rail operators in the region.

At present, only one regional city – Dubai – has a metro, but work is under way on the massive Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Doha (Qatar) systems and both could be operating by the start of the next decade.

Saudi city Makkah too has a visionary urban transport programme which is about to get under way, said a top official.

"Our plans will transform the experience of living and visiting Makkah," remarked Makkah Mass Rail Transit Company CEO Ali Abdelfattah.

“When the third and final phase gets completed, we shall have a mature public transport network comprising 114 km of rail, 25 bus routes, feeder buses and 15 bus rapid transport routes (BRT) and this will be done in 10 years,” stated Abdelfattah, one of the keynote speakers at the summit.

This year, about three million people are expected to perform the Hajj. The number is expected to double in the next five years. Umrah pilgrims, who visit Makkah outside the annual hajj season, are expected to increase to 10 million to 15 million all year around.

Saudi Arabia is planning to accommodate 25 million visitors in 2030, he added.

Abdelfattah said his team is ready to start work on the Makkah Metro. "We have done all the tendering for the five contracts (work packages) in Makkah Metro Phase One and we are about to sign contracts," the official added.

The contracts for the Makkah transport network are said to be worth SR33 billion ($8.8 billion) in total.

The region’s city planners are looking for inspiration from across the world but the development of the Tehran Metro in the past 20 years is a local model that has many lessons to teach, said experts.

The largest and busiest in the Middle East, Tehran Metro is completing a huge expansion that will play a critical role in reducing traffic congestion in the capital of the Islamic Republic, they added.  

“I believe that the main solution to the traffic problems is the metro,” remarked Mohammad Montazeri, Tehran Metro deputy managing director of Planning and Logistics.

“The number of passengers is growing by about 10 per cent a year and we are planning to develop capacity to handle 10 million a day,” explained Montazeri. “We hope that the proportion of commuter traffic handled by the metro will rise to 45 per cent by 2020 from 20 per cent now,” he added.

Tehran Metro is pressing ahead with major new extensions. Expansions of lines three and four are due to be completed by the end of 2015. They will add 20 km to the system.

Next comes the completion of the critical 35-km new line to the Imam Khomeini International Airport which is due to be finished in 2016. This will be followed by the opening of about 12 km of the new line 6 and 17 km of the new line 7, also next year.

“Three more suburban lines are planned,” stated Montazeri. The ultimate vision is of a system of a total of 430 km.

Montazeri revealed that financial constraints had slowed the expansion plans. “If there are financiers ready to invest we will be ready to accept that. We would like to have a BOT (build-operate-transfer) approach to private finance. If that’s not possible, then conventional project finance is possible,” he added.

Montazeri will be a keynote speaker at the summit. The others are senior representatives from Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects, Hong Kong Metro, Anesrif and Enterprise Metro d'Alger.

“Since Dubai opened its metro in 2009, the attitude towards large-scale investment in integrated urban transport systems has been transformed in the Arab world,” said Edmund O’Sullivan, the chairman of Mena Rail & Metro Summit.

The three-day event will focus on the key lessons to be learned from the growing number of successful metro systems operating or being built in the Middle East, stated O' Sullivan.

"With pressure growing on public finance due to lower oil prices, this summit will also investigate innovative ways of attracting private investment into Middle East metro and rail projects," he added.-TradeArabia News Service