Doha Metro

Qatar, host of the 2022 football World Cup, invited local and international companies on yesterday to signal their interest in building the Doha Metro, to include 22km of tunnels and 15 stations in its first phase. The six Gulf Arab states, including the UAE, plan to spend more than $100 billion on a rail project linking them up by 2017.

Dubai construction firm Al Habtoor Leighton, an affiliate of Australia’s Leighton Holdings, is eyeing two contract wins in Saudi Arabia worth up to SR10 billion each ($2.67 billion) by year end, its top executive said.

The wider integrated system includes the Doha Metro Network; an east coast rail link; a high-speed link between the new Doha International Airport, Doha City Centre and Bahrain via the planned Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Bridge; a freight rail link based on the GCC rail link studies

Call it Qatar’s two-track real estate development strategy. The gleaming new high-rises in the upscale West Bay enclave answer to Qatar’s need for a swanky real estate profile that is in tune with its soaring global aspirations. At the same time, the Gulf state is not about to let go of its traditional moorings, and a newly unveiled development — Musheireb — and its masterplan offer a sneak peek of how this is going to be achieved in the capital, Doha.

By Colin Foreman www.meed.com 
While years behind Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are at last taking public transport schemes seriously.
The past five years have clearly demonstrated that when Dubai builds something, its rivals quickly try to follow with their own schemes. Dubai was the first city to start building super-high-rise towers. Now, Doha, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kuwait [...]

Source: www.gulf-times.com 
 The UITP (International Association of Public Transport) Second Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Congress starts in Doha on October 25, a senior official has said.
Mowasalat Director of Business Development Ahmed al-Ansari said that at least 300 delegates representing various transport companies, regulatory authorities, vehicle manufacturers, government departments, local civic bodies and planning forums [...]

www.steelguru.com
MEED reported that trying to devise realistic economic plans is fraught with difficulties at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a global economic downturn. But that is the task facing officials at Qatar’s Urban Planning & Development Authority and Japan’s Oriental Consultants which are due to finish [...]

By Elie Milky and Hala Matar Choufany  www.4hoteliers.com
This article sets forth an insight into economic developments, tourism investments and the characteristics of the hotel market in Doha and although 2009 looked set to outperform 2008, itself a record year, Qatar began feeling the effects of the economic recession, specifically in the [...]