​Qatar Rail has announced the completion of tunnelling on the Green Line with the breakthrough of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) Al Messila at Education City, the last underground station on the network before moving towards the above ground station Al Riffa.

This major milestone for Doha Metro comes less than 10 days after Qatar Rail celebrated completion of tunnelling on the northern section of the Red Line, said a statement from Qatar Rail.

With the construction progress at the Green Line's underground station hitting 57 per cent and overall tunnelling of Doha Metro nearly 87 per cent completed, these achievements are a further testament to the progress of the project, remarked Qatar Rail CEO Dr Saad Al Muhannadi.

"Completion of tunnelling on the Green Line is yet another major milestone for the project and one we are delighted to have achieved ahead of schedule," stated Al Muhannadi.

"Across the project as a whole, we are continuing to make significant progress and as we prepare to move from the construction to systems and architectural works, we are delighted to have been able to achieve all this within the timelines and budgets allocated for this monumental endeavour. This has been possible due to the hard work and dedication of all parties involved," he stated.

Tunnelling on the Doha Metro Green Line began in October 2014 with six TBMs used for completing the 22 km operational line which has 10 underground stations and one above ground. The Green Line will run for 19 km beneath ground level and 3 km above ground, said the statement from Qatar Rail.

The Al Messila TBM, which completed tunnelling on the Green Line, was launched in January 2015 and passed through Al Rayyan Al Qadeem, Al Shaqab and Qatar National Library before reaching Education City Station, it stated.

Once service starts on the Green Line, passengers can take the route starting from Al Mansoura Station in the east to Al Riffa Station in the west, passing through 11 stations and travel the entire line within 24 minutes.

The next major milestone Qatar Rail looks forward to celebrating is completion of tunnelling on Doha Metro's Gold Line and later this year its longest line, the Red Line will also finish its tunnels, said the statement.

Towards the end of this year, Qatar Rail expects to move from construction into systems installation as track, power supply and signalling starts to be installed. At this point it will also start to work on the architectural finishes of the stations of Doha Metro, he added.

Green Line project director Jassim Al Ansari said: "This milestone marks the end of a series of successful breakthroughs all of which mark the completion of tunneling in a relatively short period of time."

"Technically, this has meant carrying out many complex operations associated with drilling horizontal tunnels and underground hazards along 33 km of twin tunnels using six TBMS," he added.

Hans Wenkenbach, the chief operating officer, Porr Group said: "We would like to thank Qatar Rail for their support throughout the challenging process of tunneling operations. There still remains work to be done until we handover the tunnel to Qatar Rail in November, and we shall remain focused to achieve our three main goals of safety, quality and time."

The first phase of the Doha Metro project is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2019, while completion of the Lusail Tram is set for 2020, he stated.

By 2030, all the three networks – Doha Metro, Lusail Tram and the long-distance rail, which will link Qatar with the GCC Rail network – are expected to be completed.

Once the first phase of the Doha Metro and Lusail Tram get ready, Qatar Rail said it aims to offer 600,000 passenger trips per day by 2021.

By then, 37 metro stations are expected to be complete, with an average journey time of three minutes between adjacent stations, it added.-TradeArabia News Service