On 2 December 2010, football fans thronged the streets of Doha, dancing and playing vuvuzela horns as Qatar celebrated the announcement by football’s world governing body Fifa that it would host the 2022 World Cup. The peninsular Gulf state, with a population of less than 2 million, had seen off competition from the US, South Korea, Japan and Australia. Qatar will be the smallest ever host nation by area, potentially the smallest by population, and certainly the first Arab state to hold the tournament.

Following the announcement, there was a buzz of anticipation around the infrastructure projects that would be needed for Qatar to successfully host the World Cup. It has taken four years, but Doha’s much-anticipated projects boom has now started. There are $276.3bn-worth of projects planned or under way, up 3.6 per cent on the same time last year. In 2014, 22.8bn-worth of projects were awarded in the country, up 80 per cent on the $12.6bn awarded in 2013, according to regional project tracker MEED Projects.

In many ways the World Cup award seemed too good to be true, and soon after the announcement people began asking questions. In particular, how would Qatar keep players and fans – both inside the stadiums and outside – cool during the summer months when the tournament traditionally takes place, months when the temperature in Qatar can reach 50 degrees Celsius?

There have been allegations of corruption around the bidding process, and Qatar’s human rights record has also been called into question, as have the working and living conditions of the thousands of South Asian workers who will build the stadiums, hotels and infrastructure needed to welcome hundreds of thousands of fans.

For the organising committee, these are unwelcome distractions from its preparations to stage the event and time is now running out to deliver the necessary infrastructure.

Progress so far

The last World Cup, in Brazil, attracted 1 million visitors to the country, drastically exceeding the Brazil Tourism Board’s expectations of 600,000. South Africa’s 2010 World Cup drew 310,000, and Germany, four years before, attracted 2 million fans. Since it won the bid in 2010, Qatar has been expecting at least 400,000 people to come for the tournament in 2022, and these visitors must be accommodated, catered for and transported.

Projects started include a $40bn rail network, which includes the $21bn Doha Metro; road upgrades around the country; a $7.4bn new port; infrastructure works such as the $14.6bn Local Roads & Drainage Programme; and numerous hotels and real estate schemes. Doha has budgeted $4bn to build and upgrade its stadiums.

After several years of delays, in 2014 Qatar opened the first phase of its new Hamad International airport. The $15.5bn hub, previously known as New Doha International, has an initial capacity of 30 million passengers a year, nearly double the design capacity of the older, and now retired, Doha International, 4 kilometres away.

To bring in machinery, supplies and equipment, New Doha Port will provide 2 million 20-foot equivalent units a year of capacity and 2 million tonnes of general cargo when it opens next year. It will take the pressure off the existing Doha Port, which will be reconfigured to host cruise ships.

A rail network is under construction to ease congestion on Qatar’s often gridlocked roads and free up logistics supply routes, in addition to transporting passengers and industrial produce.

The first two phases of the nationwide freight and transport system are still scheduled to be complete in time to serve the World Cup. This will complement light rail projects such as the Doha Metro scheme, the West Bay People Mover and transit systems in the Lusail City and Education City developments.

Doha has committed to providing at least 90,000 hotel rooms for visitors, more than Fifa’s required minimum of 60,000. The hotel market currently boasts only a fraction of this capacity, with 17,000 rooms in 2013, and its present offering is mainly four- and five-star properties serving business travellers.

This means there will be a need for more affordable two- and three-star options, as well as more flexible hotel apartments that can better cater for visiting families. Labourers and World Cup staff must also be accommodated before and during the tournament.

Revision of plans

After the euphoria of winning had subsided, Qatar began to look more realistically at its plans and has revised down the number of stadiums from the initial 12 it had proposed. Now it is more likely the minimum requirement of eight will be made ready to host the World Cup. The original 12 were to include three refurbishments and nine new projects.

Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the body behind preparations for the tournament, said last April that such a reduction would better reflect the size of the country.

Elsewhere the anticipated projects boom took longer than expected to get started, but is now well and truly under way.

The delivery of the metro has been accelerated. In its early planning stages, the mix of underground, overground and elevated sections was altered to ensure it would take contractors less time to develop the project.

A Fifa taskforce recommended in February that the tournament be pushed back to the cooler winter months of November and December. A formal announcement is expected on this after a Fifa Executive Committee meeting in March.

If the dates are changed, this will give developers another six months to prepare, but so far all those involved say they are working to a June/July 2022 deadline.

By the end of the month Qatar will know exactly how long it has to build its stadiums and  infrastructure. Regardless of the number of months, weeks and days before kick-off, this will be a race against time.