Qatar Rail Metro is one of the five finalists for the ITA Tunnelling Awards 2017, an international competition for tunnelling and underground spaces projects exceeding 500mn euros.

The award ceremony to be held between November 13 and 16 in Paris will see in attendance many international specialists in the global tunnelling sector. This includes a special one-day event on November 15. The awards will be given away on that day.

According to a statement from Qatar Rail, the first two ITA Tunnelling awards attracted more than 450 participants and more than 200 entries. It said the jury scrutinises the applications months before the event to select a list of finalists for each of the nine categories.

Apart from Qatar Rail the other three finalists are 515mn euro Tehran Metro project, Delhi Metro (Phase 3 expansion works, which is estimated to cost 4.2bn euros, and Canada's 1.4bn Confederation Light Rail Transit of Ottawa).

The Qatar Rail Metro is a 16.2bn euro project, it said while adding that it is expected to be operational by 2020.

The Qatar Rail Metro, being built in twin bored tunnels, consists of 31 stations. The first phase consists of the Gold, Red and Green Lines and the second phase includes an additional Blue Line.

Related Story