1 October 2008
On 4th August 2008, a Vehicle Launching Ceremony of the Palm Jumeirah Monorail was held in presence of senior executives from the project owner, Nakheel at Hitachi Kasado works plant in Japan. First batch of trains are scheduled to be shipped at the end of August.
"The quality of production, the quality of interiors and car machine has far beyond my expectation, and this is the most elegant monorail I had ever seen so far" mentioned Mr. Marwan Al Qamzi, the top management of NAKHEEL to the press.
Now, the UAE is enjoying tremendous progress in every sector and attracting attention from all over the world. The Palm Jumeirah, a project of NAKHEEL is a unique and unparalleled development worldwide in creating a man-made island.
Hitachi were awarded the contract in December 2006 to supply monorail system including rolling stock (4 trains of 3-car-configuration), track switch, signaling system, communication system, and substation, etc. This is the third occasion for Hitachi to demonstrate their Monorail system to the global market, following the successful completions of Chongqing Monorail in China and Sentosa Monorail in Singapore.
The project is scheduled to start commercial operation in the Spring of 2009.