In order to have a chance at winning their bid to host the 2020 Olympics, Qatar is speeding up work on several infrastructure projects, including the Doha Metro project.
Qatar Railways’ Deputy Chief Executive Geoff Mee, said that phase 1A of the Gulf state’s $40 billion rail network will be finished by 2019, right in time to host the 2020 Olympics if Qatar wins the bid for the right to host the world’s most watched sporting event.
The next phase, 1B, will be completed before the 2022 soccer World Cup, which Qatar is hosting, according to Mee.
"We're having to push this ahead very, very quickly," Mee said.
Late last year a different senior executive at Qatar Railways Company (QRail), the operator of the planned rail network for Qatar, said that the company will tender the first contracts for the Doha Metro at the beginning of 2012.
Tens of billions of dollars are going into Qatar’s infrastructure with a variety of projects including the $40 billion integrated, nationwide rail project; an $11 billion new airport and a deep water seaport which will cost $5.5 billion to construct.
Contracts known as RFPs, request for proposals which will enable work to begin were issued on Monday, said Mee. He added that four tunneling RFP contracts worth $2-3 billion each will be launched this coming April, and will be awarded by October.
"The starting gun has gone and you're going to be very busy getting these bids ready to go," Mee said.