The Doha Metro, when it eventually opens in 2019, is expected to make a huge difference to the life of people in the country. It is hoped that the traffic will come down significantly as more people make use of the state-of-the-art Metro line.

A top official of the Qatar Integrated Railway Project (QIRP) said that 54 to 59% of the total work had been completed on the four lines.

“The first train will start running in the last quarter of 2019, as scheduled,” Gulf Times quoted QIRP Senior Director Markus Demmler as saying.

Almost 61.4% of work is over in the 13.6km underground stretch of the Red Line from Lusail to Wakrah. Similarly, 66.5% of work on the 8.9km Red Line South elevated route is over.

Additionally, 58.6% of the 19.1km Red Line South Underground, 55% of the 14.8 km Gold Line Ground Underground, 54.3% of the Msheireb Interchange stations, 59.4% of the 2.98km Greenline elevated, and 54.4% of 19km of the Greenline underground have already been completed.

Work on the Lusail Light Rail Transit, comprising 32km of lines and 35 stations, is slightly behind schedule. Around 44.8% of overall work has been done so far.

The Lusail LRT is expected to go online by 2020, two years prior to the FIFA World Cup.

Work on the 486km Long Distance rail operations, connecting Qatar and Saudi Arabia, will commence soon and become operational in 2019.

Trucks moved in and out 466,290 times to transport 2.8mn sqm of concrete blocks for tunnel construction. Trucks travelled 620,000 times to move earth from excavation sites.

Similarly, close to 666,000 truck movements removed 6.6mn tonnes of muck from the tunnel boring machines.