French-Japanese consortium wins Dubai Metro, Tram operation and maintenance contract

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has granted the contract for the operation and maintenance of the Dubai Metro as well as that of the Dubai Tram to a French-Japanese consortium.

The contract covers 15 years (9 base years and 6 renewable years) and amounts to approximately Dhs542m per annum.

The consortium consists of three companies – Keolis, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, and Mitsubishi Corporation, and the contract comes into force as of September 8, 2021.

The award of the contract follows a public tender released by RTA in which four consortiums and international firms specialised in rail operation and maintenance took part. The French-Japanese consortium won it ̀after submitting the best technical and financial proposals, official news agency WAM reported.

#RTA awards contract for operation and maintenance of Dubai Metro & Tram to French-Japanese consortium consists of Keolis, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, and Mitsubishi Corporation. @MHI_Group @groupekeolis pic.twitter.com/bB7d12AuO2

— RTA (@rta_dubai) March 20, 2021

“According to the contract, the consortium shall undertake the operation and maintenance services of the Dubai Metro Red and Green lines as well as Route 2020,” said Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, director-general, chairman of the board of executive directors of the Roads and Transport Authority.

“It will also cater to the operation of Dubai Tram, and all assets of the metro and tram networks including trains, control centres, stations and the associated infrastructure. It shall also attend to the provision of high-class passenger transport services compatible with the daily changing requirements in the number of metro and tram riders,” said Al Tayer.

“The contract also covers the operation and maintenance of the automated metro and fare systems including the selling and recharging of nol cards at the metro stations. It calls for providing senior, technical and administrative posts for Emiratis and training them on the rail work.

“During the preparatory period, the consortium shall be in full coordination with the current operator to take over the tasks and ensure high safety levels for network users. The process entails continuous monitoring of the safety and the continued improvement of the metro and tram systems and requires coordination between the metro, tram and other means of transport. It also requires the smooth transfer of employees from the current operator to the new operator,” noted Al Tayer.

Al Tayer stressed that the outsourcing of the Dubai Metro operation and maintenance to specialist international firms was attributed to many reasons.

“The specialist companies have extensive international maintenance experience by dealing with experts and specialists of the industry across the globe. The outsourcing of these jobs will also reduce the operational and maintenance costs of the metro and tram by benefiting from the high performance of those companies in delivering top quality services at lower costs and their continuous efforts to reduce operational costs. They will also enable the transfer the operational and maintenance expertise to citizens. The contract separates the consortium’s role in the operation and maintenance of the system, and RTA’s role in monitoring and overseeing the operation. The outsourcing of metro and tram operation and maintenance is a common global practice across famous metro lines in cities like London, Singapore, Paris and Sydney,” concluded Al Tayer.

Keolis group CEO Marie-Ange Debon, said: “As a multimodal operator working closely with 300 public transport authorities every day to guarantee safe, reliable and passenger-focused mobility solutions, we look forward to nurturing a collaborative partnership with RTA to deliver their vision of smart, sustainable and convenient public transportation for the city.”

Serco Middle East operates the Dubai Metro, on behalf of RTA.

In September 2019, Dubai Metro celebrated the completion of 10 years of its operations during which it transported over 1.5 billion passengers and had a punctuality rate of 99.7 per cent.

Read: Video: Dubai Metro completes 10 years in operation