Drake & Scull wins contract for Dubai International Airport passenger rail system

The Dubai-based mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractor Drake & Scull has won its first rail project in the Middle East, with a Dh35 million subcontract to build part of a light-rail system to move passengers inside the upgraded Dubai International Airport.

In a statement to the Dubai bourse yesterday morning, Drake & Scull said that its rail division, Drake & Scull Rail, had been awarded the contract for works on a transit system connecting Concourse 4 at the Dubai International Airport to Terminal 1.

“This is another piece of good news for the construction sector in the UAE,” said Sebastien Henin, the head of asset management at The National Investor. “The size of order is normal for DSI but it is interesting to see DSI pushing into the rail business in the Middle East.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Drake & Scull Rail will provide railway services including signals, traction power, maintenance of area power, compressed air and communication systems as well as minor construction works and mechanical electrical and plumbing work.

The deal is part of plans announced in 2011 to expand Dubai International to increase capacity to 90 million passengers by 2018 by building a fourth concourse at Terminal 1 and enlarging Terminal 2.

In November 2012 the Canadian transport company Bombardier Transportation won the Dh392m contract from the main contractor Alec (Al Jaber LEGT Engineering & Contracting) to build the monorail system. Bombardier will provide 18 driverless monorail trains.

“We are very optimistic about the outlook for the rail industry, as we’ve seen tremendous activity in this sector in the last two years,” said Darko Macura, the operations director of Drake & Scull Rail. “In the last year, more than US$30 billion worth of rail construction contracts have been awarded, from metro projects in Saudi Arabia to tram systems in Algeria.”

“We are partnering with the world’s leading railways experts and we would like to offer our integrated end-to-end engineering services to major projects, including metro rails in Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, Dammam, Doha and [the UAE’s] Etihad Rail. Kuwait and Oman are other promising prospects for Drake & Scull Rail, and of course, India remains one of the biggest rail markets in Asia and we are actively pursuing opportunities over there,” he added.

Drake & Scull Rail has previously worked on projects such as the Jubilee Line extension and St Pancras Station redevelopment in London, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the Hong Kong Metro.

As part of the Dubai International expansion, an extensive runway enhancement project will take place over 80 days starting on May 1. It will reduce scheduled passenger flights and divert all freighter, charter and general aviation flights to Dubai World Central.

Shares in DSI rose 0.6 per cent on Monday to Dh1.67 each on the news.

lbarnard@thenational.ae

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