The move that could add delay in the completion of prestigious Dubai Metro project, a consortium led by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has announced to go slow on the construction work. This could be due to differences of both firms over some payment issues, as reported by some confidential sources.

Toshitaka Kawahara, a spokesman for one of the constructor, Obayashi Corp informed, "We are slowing the pace of the construction for the purpose of negotiating the terms of contracts."
Consortium of companies developing Dubai Metro includes Mitsubishi Corp., Kajima Corp., and Turkey's Yapi Merkezi. The consortium started work on the rail project aimed to arrest rising traffic congestion, in September.

Dubai government has been delaying the payments, forcing the companies to suspend work on the project for which cost surged around 100 per cent to US$7.6 billion. This is seen as a major financial burden for the government battling with financial crisis.

UAE construction segment remained under immense pressure due to the impact of global financial crisis leading to delay in a large number of such projects due to unavailability of finance.
Dubai inaugurated its metro network in September in a bid to cut dependency on cars and ease congestion, becoming the first city in the oil-rich Gulf to introduce rail as a commuting option.