27 December 2015
Qatar Railways Company, the company overseeing the construction of Qatar's integrated railway network, has signed a contract with Qatar Cool, to provide district cooling services at seven of the Doha Metro Red Line stations. A signing ceremony took place at Qatar Rail's headquarters on the 30th of November in presence of Saad Ahmed Al Muhannadi, CEO of Qatar Rail, and Yasser Salah Al Jaidah, CEO of Qatar Cool.

Qatar Rail has chosen to partner with Qatar Cool to provide district cooling at the Pearl and West Bay stations.

The stations include Legtaifiya, Katara, Al Qassar, Doha Exhibition and Convention Center, West Bay, Corniche and Al Bidda stations. The partnership will proactively contribute to cooling measures during the summer months starting 2019, the projected operation date of the Doha Metro project (Phase 1).

Through district cooling, chilled water is delivered via underground isolated pipelines to commercial, hotel and residential buildings to cool the buildings water via an Energy Transfer Station (ETS) which is situated in the basement of each building within a district. The EST in each building then uses the buildings water to lower the temperature of air passing through the building's air conditioning system, known as Fan Coil Units (FCU) or Air Handling Units (AHU).

Cooling systems will operate throughout the other stations and on the trains themselves.

Saad Al Muhannadi, commented: "Qatar Rail has always sought to work with the best local suppliers and partners on every aspect of each of its projects to achieve the implementation of a sustainable railway network.

We have the pleasure to cooperate with Qatar Cool to provide 7 stations on the project with a district cooling system that won't only withstand the hot weather during summer peak times in Doha, but also contribute to protecting the environment."

Yasser Salah Al Jaidah said: "We take great pride in being part of Qatar Rail's story. The benefits that the Qatar Rail system will bring to our country by providing an environmentally friendly, safe, fast and very efficient means of transportation are clear and necessary for our growing population."

© The Peninsula 2015