Qatar Rail’s tunneling operations enter the Guinness World Records Book

Marking a milestone for large-scale transport projects in Qatar and across the region, Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail), the company overseeing the construction of Qatar’s integrated railway network, has been officially recognized by the Guinness World Records (the global authority on record-breaking achievements), for “The Largest Number of Tunnel Boring Machines Operating Simultaneously in a Single Project”.

Works for Qatar Rail’s mega projects have been advancing at full speed since their launch, thanks to groundbreaking technologies from leading manufacturers and suppliers and a strong focus on operational efficiency. Qatar Rail’s 21 advanced tunnel boring machines (TBM), deployed across the works for the Doha Metro stations, have achieved many breakthrough milestones for the project’s overall progress.

“Since we embarked on this journey, we’ve committed ourselves, our resources, our partners and our technologies to delivering world-class projects with speed and efficiency. This recognition by the Guinness World Records is a hard-earned and well-deserved testament to the collective power of our teams, our partners and our stakeholders, who never lost sight of what is needed to deliver our ambitious plans. This certificate is only a chapter in our story. I am confident in that Qatar Rail will be seeing more record-setting achievements in the future,” said Qatar Rail’s Managing Director, Eng. Abdulla Abdulaziz Al Subaie. 

From his part, Eng. Saad Ahmed Al Muhannadi, Qatar Rail’s CEO said: “With a Guinness book recognition under our belt, we carry an even greater and larger responsibility towards our community in successfully closing the tunneling phase for the Doha Metro project. Qatar Rail is keen on meeting and outperforming on its ambitious objectives and world-class benchmarks. We dedicate this achievement – that is a clear indication of the scale and importance of the Doha Metro project - to our team, as well as to the State of Qatar and all our stakeholders who have shared our vision and ambition”.

With this recognition, Qatar Rail has broken the previous world record which had set an initial benchmark of 19 simultaneously operational TBMs. To this end, the certification process for Qatar Rail entailed a stringent verification process undertaken by the Guinness World Records Authority. 

A verification committee visit this month involved 20 inspectors appointed for every operational TBM, which filmed the machines. The inspectors were also supplied by the Geographic Information System (GIS) data of Qatar Rail that confirmed works and status of all TBMs. Validating the results has been undertaken by Professor Arnold Dix, an independent record verifier and a highly accomplished tunneling expert and lawyer who heads a legal chapter in the International Tunneling Association (ITA), and whose credentials were accepted by the Guinness committee. 

Currently, Qatar Rail manages the operations of 21 TBMs working underground as part of the Doha Metro project. The high tech machines imported from Germany, are set to accomplish the tunneling phase in 2017, while the first stage of the Doha Metro project will be delivered later in 2019.