DOHA: Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani paid an inspection visit to the Lusail Tram network yesterday, to review the progress of the Lusail Tram and Doha Metro projects, as well as Qatar Rail’s major achievements.

On this occasion, Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, stated: “Qatar Rail has come leaps and bounds in implementing the Doha Metro and Lusail Tram projects, which are key transport infrastructure projects to realize Qatar National Vision 2030.

“The progress would not have been possible without the wise leadership of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the close supervision of H E Prime Minister and Interior Minister and their continuous support, especially since the blockade started”.

“Over the past year, Qatar Rail persevered to face all the challenges it faced with no impact on the delivery of its projects. We stand here today very proud of the progress achieved thus far and we look forward to more and more great achievements in the upcoming period,” he said.

Over the past year, Qatar Rail has achieved its best progress rate ever. By end of May 2018, the Doha Metro project progress stood at 85 percent, while in May 2017 it stood at 59 percent, which means that Qatar Rail was able to achieve around 30 percent progress in one year, the highest progress rate achieved since the inception of the railway projects in 2013.  The Lusail Tram project progress currently stands at 77 percent.

To this day, 100 percent of construction and civil works on the Doha Metro project have been completed this day, MEP works progress stands at 69 percent, and architectural finishes progress stands at 46 percent.

The Prime Minister took a short journey on board of Lusail Tram, from the Depot to Lusail station. The visit marks the first official testing of the Lusail Tram train and coincides with the 1-year anniversary of the blockade against Qatar. The Prime Minister reviewed the progress achieved during this period, which witnessed the highest progress rate across Qatar Rail’s projects.

Eng. Abdulla Abdulaziz Al Subaie, Qatar Rail Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer said: “We are honoured to receive H E the Prime Minister at the Lusail Tram project site. Qatar Rail’s projects have witnessed significant progress over the last year as we have devoted all our efforts to overcoming the challenges we faced and adapting to the ongoing developments.

“We also focused on developing alternatives, at multiple levels, to ensure that the progress of our projects is not jeopardized and that everything goes according to schedule and plan.

“We were also keen on finding suitable alternatives for our suppliers and manufacturers from other countries; as a result, we relocating some manufacturing activities to Qatar in cooperation with local companies, which have shown tremendous support in the process. We are sincerely thankful to all of them”.

He added: “Thanks to Qatar Rail’s rapid response, we were able to deal with all possible impacts and overcome the challenges we faced and the support we received from the concerned authorities and all our partners played a major role in our achievements thus far.”

Lusail Tram trains travel at a speed of 60 km per hour. In total, 28 trains consisting of five carriages split in two – one for families and one for general commuters.