ALYSJ, which is led by Aktor, a subsidiary of Greek construction group Ellaktor, and includes Larsen & Toubro, India, Turkish firms Yapi Merkezi and STFA, and Al jabber Engineering, Qatar, secured a $US 4.2bn contract for design and construction of the 32km underground line in April 2014.

The east-west line runs from Doha Airport South to Al Rayyan and will have 13 underground stations. The construction phase will utilise six tunnel boring machines simultaneously and the contract with ALYSJ includes the fitting out of stations. Atkins confirmed that it secured a $US 135m contract to lead the design of the project in July 2014.

The project is expected to be completed by August 2018 and open in 2019.