According to Reuters, Qatar, host of the 2022 soccer World Cup, plans to offer the first tender for its railway and metro system in the next three months. Preliminary designs had already been prepared, said Abdullah al-Subaie, managing director of the Qatar Railways Company. Subaie said the total cost of the Qatar railway project will reach US$ 35.7 billion and that more than 1.2 million tonnes of iron would be required for the project. There will be a total of 100 stations in the project. He did not give details about the size of the contracts, but said they would include a tender for digging tunnels and setting up stations for the network. Subaie said work on the system would start with the metro and its first phase will be ready by 2021, one year before the soccer World Cup. The entire project would be completed by 2026. Qatar's copious natural gas reserves have turned it into an economic powerhouse and the world's richest country per-capita, and driven its bold ambitions. The tiny Gulf Arab state has allocated 40 percent of its budget between now and 2016 to infrastructure projects. These include $11 billion on a new international airport, $5.5 billion on a deep-water seaport and $1 billion for a transport corridor in the capital, Doha. It will spend $20 billion on roads. The world's top liquefied natural gas exporter, spared by popular unrest sweeping the Arab world, plans to spend over $125 billion in the next five years on construction and energy projects. Subaie said he urged Qatari companies to build partnerships with international firms to work on the construction of the project.

As reported by Reuters a five-year project for French engineering group Alstom to build an above-ground urban metro line in Baghdad will cost $1.5 billion and be funded by the French government and banks, according to Iraqi officials. The planned line, with a capacity to carry 30,000 passengers an hour, will have 22 km of track and 14 stations linking northern Baghdad districts with the city centre. France's Alstom signed a memorandum of understanding for the deal in January. A follow-up agreement signed in Baghdad on 30 May paved the way for French financing for the project. "The company has obtained agreement from several French banks and the French government to implement this project," Shaker al-Zamili, head of the Baghdad Investment Commission, told Reuters. A final accord on the Baghdad metro project would have to be approved by the Iraqi cabinet, he added. The loan would be repaid by Iraq after the railway started operating, through a mechanism yet to be determined, Zamili added. Iraq's roads, railways, ports and power plants have been badly decayed by years of war, economic sanctions and underinvestment. Alstom is a large French multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. Alstom is active in the field of hydroelectric power generation, in conventional islands for nuclear power plants, and in environmental control systems. Alstom is also present in the urban transport market, and is behind regional train models, signaling infrastructure equipment, and a number of associated services.

As reported news agency Xinhua, construction of a tunnel that will traverse Trola Mountain in southwestern Sichuan Province began on June 1. At an altitude of 4.24 to 4.38 kilometers, the Trola Mountain tunnel will be the world's highest on a highway. As part of Sichuan-Tibet Highway that links Chengdu, Sichuan in the east with Lhasa, Tibet in the west. The 7-kilometers tunnel will shorten travel time across the mountain from more than two hours to only about 10 minutes, construction manager Li Ming said. He also added that, workers must first build an approach that is 14.06 kilometers long on the east side of the mountain. The tunnel is scheduled to be completed in four years with an investment of $US173 million. The 2,415 thousand kilometers Sichuan-Tibet highway is considered one the world's most deadly as it traverses a dozen rivers and 14 mountains with altitudes of 4 to 5 kilometers. China has spent nearly $ US 21.6 billion on development of 188 key projects in Tibet between 2005 and 2010, and key among them are projects that link Tibet to the rest of China. And the governments of Sichuan and Tibet are planning to build more tunnels on several key mountains to improve traffic.

The PNC (Financial Service Corporation) Financial Group announced this week, that it plans to construct the world's greenest skyscraper. The Tower at PNC Plaza will be located In Pittsburgh, where PNC has been headquartered for more than 150 years. Once completed in 2015, the approximately 40 storey building will serve as PNC's executive Offices. At approximately 75 thousand square meters, the Tower at PNC Plaza would be PNC's largest building in Pittsburgh. Tentative plans call for approximately 300 underground parking spaces, street level retail and green rooftops. Erecting the planned $400 million Tower should create 2,500 construction jobs. Deconstruction of buildings on the site is expected to begin late in 2011, with construction scheduled to begin in the spring of 2012. PNC anticipates completion of the Tower at PNC Plaza in the summer of 2015. The project is being designed by the Pittsburgh office of Gensler, the world's largest architectural and design firm. Pittsburgh-based PJ Dick will serve as construction manager and U.K.-based Buro Happold will be the engineering firm. Paladino & Company of Seattle serves as the green building consultant. The Tower at PNC Plaza will feature a double glass facade to enhance energy efficiency by reducing cooling costs and allowing natural airflow to the building. Using advanced sensors and metering, a state-of-the-art, high efficiency heating and cooling system will deliver conditioned air to specific zones of the building, as needed. The building will be oriented to take advantage of sunlight in workspaces, reducing the need for artificial light during the day. The design team is also currently exploring fuel cells, solar panels, geothermal systems and other alternative power generation sources that will significantly reduce carbon emissions. The building's green rooftops will collect rainwater and channel it for use in other parts of the structure, as well as reduce the heat gain associated with traditional rooftops. PNC, the sixth largest bank by deposits in the United States, opened its first green building in 2000. At that time, the 60 thousand square meters PNC Firstside Center was the largest LEED-certified building in the world. In 2010, PNC opened Three PNC Plaza, one of the largest LEED-certified mixed use buildings in the United States. PNC, which has more newly constructed buildings LEED-certified by the USGBC than any company on Earth, recently completed its latest green office building in Washington, D.C. LEED Platinum certified PNC Place at 800 17th Street sits just blocks from the White House and serves as PNC's regional headquarters in the capital.

Realty Capital has completed construction work on its i-Rise business tower project in Dubai. I-Rise tower is strategically located on a premium corner plot in Dubai's Tecom Site-C and offers a total built-up-area of more than 150 thousand square meters, making it among the region's largest office tower developments. Realty Capital has revealed that a number of high-profile tenants have already started fit-out works in their respective offices with the intention to move into the luxurious, 36-storey executive and corporate tower. But Dubai's latest eye-catching real estate project has sold only half of its units. Realty Capital worked with the main contractor AI Naboodah in order to complete the project on schedule. Realty Capital Middle East has also partnered with several of the world's top service providers for the design, development, execution and sales of the project, including, Khatib & Alami Consolidated Engineering Company, a leading architectural and engineering consultancy firm in the MENA region; Projacs International, one of the largest Pan-Arab project and construction management firms and so on. 36 storey tower offers prime commercial space with a gross area of 3 thousand square meters per floor. Offices at i-Rise are characterised as both modern and flexible ranging from 50 to 330 square meters. Individual offices come in two modules, executive and corporate. Executive offices have their own toilets, pantry and store rooms. i-Rise has also been designed to deliver generous daylight in all office spaces, creating substantial energy savings and enhancing the tower's environmental benefits. In addition to its location, convenient access from Sheikh Zayed Road and optimum visibility, i-Rise also offers panoramic views of the Arabian Gulf and the New Dubai skyline. Moreover, it is just a short distance away from the Dubai Metro Station.