The UK’s Turner & Townsend has been awarded the project management consultancy contracts for the Doha metro project and the high-speed passenger line for Qatar’s national rail network.

The 360-kilometre Doha metro network will have four lines and 100 stations when complete. The four lines are the Red Coastal line, Golden Historic line, Green Education line and Blue City line. Most of the lines and stations need to be delivered well in advance of the 2022 deadline. The entire system is scheduled to be complete by 2026.

The high-speed passenger railway will also be used for freight at off-peak periods. This will be able to achieve speeds of up to 350km a hour.

For the metro, About 80 contractors submitted expressions of interest (EoIs) for civil works for the Fifa 2022 Priority Phase 1 works, which covers the Doha metro in October. Between 50 to 60 companies submitted EoIs for the elevated and underground works, while the remainder submitted for the enabling works (MEED 28:10:11).

Most of the companies have now started to organise themselves into consortiums. Companies must be part of a consortium to bid for any projects in the $35bn Qatar Integrated Rail Programme (QIRP).

Nine packages covering civil works are due to be tendered during the first quarter of 2012. Six of the packages are urgent underground packages. The civil works cover enabling works, underground utilities and station pits for three main stations.  The bulk of civil works will be carried out by design and build contracts.

The metro and the high speed passenger line are both part of the the $35bn Qatar Integrated Rail Programme (QIRP).The US’ Parsons Brinckerhoff has been selected as the strategic programme manager for the QIRP.