Multi-billion pound railway deal boosts Qatar 2022 World Cup bid

By Duncan Mackay

November 22 – Qatar today signed a €17 billion (£15 billion) rail project with Deutsche Bahn that will play an important role in transporting football fans around the country if it is awarded the 2022 World Cup.

The project includes a joint venture between Qatari Diar, the real estate arm of the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, with 51 per cent, and Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned rail operator, with 49 per cent to execute the integrated network, which it has negotiated for years with Deutsche Bahn.

The whole project is expected to be completed in 2026 but a major portion of the work will be completed by 2022, in anticipation of Qatar becoming the first Middle East to be awarded the World Cup.

The agreement was officially signed today in the Qatari capital by Ghanim bin Saad al-Saad, chief executive of state-owned Qatari Diar, and Ruediger Grube, chief executive of Deutsche Bahn AG, in the presence of the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer.

The proposed 651km network with 98 stations across the peninsula is set to change the urban landscape of Qatar.

Saad al-Saad said: ”We would like to have the best system in the world to support our economy.”

The deal is also likely to involve German industrial group Siemens in supplying trains and the German building industry in the construction of the rail network.

It is one of the biggest foreign deals ever signed by a German company.

The network will integrate Qatar’s east coast rail link, a passenger and freight railway line, and connect oil and natural gas hub Ras Laffan in the north with the refinery town of Mesaieed in the south, via Doha, and a high-speed link between the new Doha international airport and the city’s centre.

The network will also connect to Bahrain via the Qatar-Bahrain causeway, a freight rail link based on the Gulf Arab rail network and Doha Expressway studies, a comprehensive Doha Metro Network, based on the Qatar Transport Master Plan and multiple light rail people mover networks in Lusail, Education City and West Bay.

Earlier this month announced final plans for the new £8.5 billion international airport that is due to be completed in 2011.

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