As the Middle East's population expands rapidly, major companies from the East and West are rushing to the Gulf to help develop solutions for the region's growing population through green public transport systems.
In the United Arab Emirates, French technology firm, Alstom, delivered its first batch of 11 tram trains, which will commute across air-conditioned stations in Dubai's Marina district. Completion of the first phase of building is estimated to cost 3. 18 billion Dirham or 866 million U.S. dollars, according to the Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority.
Five years after Dubai launched its fully-automated, driverless Dubai metro, mostly built by Japan's Mitsubishi for 28 billion Dirham (7.62 billion dollars), the UAE sets another benchmark in relation to clean tech and environmentally friendly transport. The Gulf Arab emirate moved early into diversifying and developing its economy, attempting to find a common means of transport throughout the Arab peninsula.
Neighboring countries have followed Dubai's lead. In July 2012, a consortium led by Germany's biggest engineering and electronics firm Siemens AG snatched an order from Qatar to build a tram system in Doha. Siemens also secured the lead position to build a metro system in Doha city and in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The project in Riyadh will install a city metro of 63.3 kilometers length with 42 stations to ease traffic in the chronically-congested Saudi city. Along with Siemens, the United States' largest construction and engineering company Bechtel and Los Angeles-based AECOM will work on the metro. According to Siemens, 25,000 workers and 2,000 professionals will be needed to accomplish the project set to be completed by 2019.