A joint venture of UAE-based Al-Naboodah Contracting and South Africa’s Group Five has won an estimated QR400m ($110m) contract to build a railway station at the $11bn New Doha International Airport (NDIA).

The two-year project, known as the Passenger Railway Station Box, involves building the concrete shell for a railway station terminal. This will accommodate an express rail line that will connect the airport to rail stations in central Doha (MEED 4:10:09).

The other bidders for the contract included the UAE/Australian Al-Habtoor Leighton Group; the local Aljaber Engineering; UAE-based Arabtec Construction; Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) with Teyseer Contracting Company; Germany’s Ed Zueblin; and Singapore’s Sembawang Engineers & Contractors.

UK-based Mace International is the project manager for the scheme. The client is the NDIA Steering Committee.

The contract is the first construction deal to be awarded on any of the rail networks Doha is planning to build over the next 10 years.

The plans include an east coast rail link between Ras Laffan and Mesaieed; a high-speed link from Doha to Bahrain across the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway; a freight line connecting to the planned GCC rail network; a Doha metro network; and a light rail network serving residential developments around the capital.

A second rail terminal will be built at NDIA for the GCC rail network that will link Doha with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC states.