Friday, January 08, 2010
TOKYO: A consortium led by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has put the brakes on construction work on the Dubai Metro due to a disagreement over payments, one of the firms said on Thursday.
“We are slowing the pace of the construction for the purpose of negotiating the terms of contracts,” said Toshitaka Kawahara, a spokesman for Obayashi Corp, which is one of the constructors.
The consortium also comprises Mitsubishi Corp, Kajima Corp, and Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi.
A source close to one of the companies said that the construction work appeared to have been temporarily halted.
“It seems that the work has stopped onsite,” said the source, who declined to be named.
A spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said the work had “slowed down.”
Dubai said in September that the cost of building the metro had nearly doubled to 7.6 billion dollars, adding to the financial troubles of the Gulf emirate, which is battling a serious debt crisis.
The Japanese Nikkei business daily reported earlier on Thursday that the consortium would suspend construction on the metro as early as Thursday due to a delay in payment from the Dubai government.
The consortium members decided to halt the work for the time being to secure back payments from the Dubai government, it said.
The global financial crisis has hit the construction sector in Dubai, delaying many projects due to the credit crunch.
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