Dubai Metro section to close for 18 months

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority has announced the closure of a section of the city’s metro until the middle of next year to allow construction work to take place.

The authority previously closed the Red Line between Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT) station and Ibn Battuta station on weekends for an extended period in July as construction got underway on the Route 2020 project.

Read: Dubai Metro’s Red Line to be partially closed during weekends

This closure is now to become full-time from Friday, January 5 to mid 2019, affecting commuters that use the JLT, Nakheel Harbour and Tower and Ibn Battuta stations.

A free replacement bus service will transport passengers between the JLT and Ibn Battuta stations allowing travel in the direction of UAE Exchange and vice versa to Rashidiya.

Nakheel Habour and Tower Station and its attached multi-level Park-N-Ride Terminal will remain closed during the period.

The Route 2020 project involves extending the Dubai Metro Red Line for 15km from Nakheel Harbour and Tower station to the site of Expo 2020, passing through areas including Discovery Gardens, Furjan, Jumeirah Golf Estates and Dubai Investment Park.

Around 3.2km of track between Discovery Gardens and Green Community will be underground, with the remaining 11.8km overground.

The RTA announced the awarding of a Dhs10.6bn contract for the expansion to a consortium led by France’s Alstom in June 2016.

Read: Dubai’s RTA awards $2.9bn Route 2020 metro expansion contract

Tunnelling work is now underway and trials are expected to begin by the end of 2019 with the route to become operational five months before the October start of Expo 2020.

Read: Video: Dubai’s Route 2020 metro extension takes shape

The capacity of Route 2020 is 46,000 users per hour in both directions – equalling 23,000 users per hour per direction.

The ridership of the route is expected to hit 125,000 users per day by 2020, and rise to 275,000 users per day by 2030, according to the RTA.