L&T bags Qatar 2022 World Cup stadium contract

The Dollar Business Bureau

Indian multi-national conglomerate, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Ltd, has bagged a contract for building a stadium worth $135 million for 2022 World Cup in Qatar, said an official.
This will be a shot-in-the arm to the company, which is going through a lean period in the Middle East due to low prices of oil.

“As part of a joint venture with Qatar-based Al Balagh Trading & Contracting, L&T will build the Al Rayyan stadium having 40,000-seating capacity,” an official in Qatari government disclosed to Reuters.
The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SCDL) said on Monday that the joint venture will rebuild the Al Rayyan Stadium within three years.
L&T is one of the biggest industrial groups in India and is engaged in infrastructure projects in the Middle East such as the Metro line construction in Doha. Last month, the L&T’s group executive chairman said that the company was looking for projects in the African and Asian regions to counter a slowdown in Gulf markets which have been hit by falling oil prices.

Qatar is the leading liquefied natural gas exporter in the world and one of the richest nations in terms of per capita. The country is facing a $12.8 billion (46.5 billion riyal) budget deficit in the current year due to constant lower revenues from oil and gas.
The Middle East country reduced the planned spending by around two-thirds on building healthcare facilities in 2016 due to a drop in energy prices. However, the expenditure on company’s projects related to World Cup remains unchanged.
The Al Rayyan Stadium has already got a design award from a panel of foreign sports facility experts this year. The stadium’s exterior is designed from seven different patterns highlighting varied aspects of Qatari culture that merge to form a single design.