Efforts are under way to build a rail link to the new international airport under construction in Doha, an element that was left out of the original design.

Bids will be submitted by the second week of November for a preliminary design adding a rail link to the project.

The design and management of the airport has been carried out since 2004 by US construction giant Bechtel, which omitted a rail link from its original plans.

'At the time it took over there was no rail in Doha, only roads,' says Boris van Thiel of German group Ingenieurburo Vossing, a consultant on the project.

'Now there are plans for a light rail network in the city and we need a 2-kilometre-long corridor to link it to the airport.'

Bechtel was unavailable

for comment.