Row over $10bn owed by client could delay opening of metro's green line

Contractors on Dubai’s metro are poised to suspend work because they are owed $10bn (£6.27bn) by the client.

A consortium comprising four Japanese contractors and one Turkish firm: Obayashi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi and Kajima, received $5.7bn (£3.57bn) worth of orders from Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority in 2005 to develop the Dubai Metro, but due to actual construction expenses the money they are owed is thought to have doubled.

In a bid to collect its outstanding bills the consortium is understood to have slowed down the pace of work and could fully suspend further construction on the Dubai Metro.

This could delay opening of the Green Line, scheduled for 2010.

Japanese firms in Dubai, working on a total of 18 projects in the emirate, are owed collectively an estimated $15bn for work done before October 2009, according to local press reports.

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