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$390m contract awarded

DUBAI — Nakheel awarded three Japanese companies — Marubeni Corporation, Hitachi Limited and Obayachi Corporation — a $390 million contract to construct the first phase of Dubai’s monorail, which will be operational in December 2008.

Nakheel is currently working on a multi-mode transport mechanism for approximately one million residents at its Dubai Waterfront development and studying a number of traffic solutions.

The Palm Jumeirah and Palm Deira projects are also expected to have monorails linked to Dubai Light Rail.

In addition to the Dubai Light Rail project, the emirate is planning to get another seven monorails, with the development of new master-planned neighbourhoods.

The privately funded and developed monorails will primarily cater to those neighbourhoods and operate as feeder services to the Dubai Light Rail system, which will be completed in two phases by 2012.

While three of them, including one on The Palm Jumeirah, the second in Dubai International Financial Centre and the third in the City of Arabia at Dubailand, have been confirmed, four others are currently under study.

According to some estimates, these are likely to be built in Dubai Waterfront, the Burj Dubai complex, The Palm Deira and Dubai Festival City.

The internal monorails, operating as feeders, will bring residents from various stations across the new districts to Dubai Light Rail stations.