Dubai's $3.4B Metro 'Billions Of Dirhams' Over Budget-RTA Chmn

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The first phase of the $3.4 billion Dubai metro project, which includes two lines, is running "billions of dirhams" over budget, but the Roads & Transport Authority hopes to recoup up to half of its cost by 2014, the transport body's chairman said Monday.

"The cost has gone up for so many reasons," Matter Al Tayer told Zawya Dow Jones on the sidelines of press conference to announce the fare structure of the transit system.

"We're still calculating and negotiating with the contractor on the final amount so I can't give you an exact figure, but its some billions of dirhams over the original AED15 billion," he said, adding it was less than double the original budget.