L&T wins $135-mn Qatar World Cup stadium contract on Modi’s day out

Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has secured a $135 million contract to build a stadium for Qatar's 2022 World Cup, Reuters quoted a company official as saying.

The agreement signed on the sidelines of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Qatar, will be big boost for the Indian firm facing a slowdown in its key Middle East market due to low oil prices.

"As part of a joint venture, L&T will serve as a contractor building the 40,000 seat Al Rayyan stadium," the report quoted an unnamed Qatari government official as saying.

L&T has been hit hard by a slowdown in Middle Eastern markets in the wake of a decline in oil prices and had started looking elsewhere for new business. In May the company's group executive chairman said L&T was bidding for projects in Asia and Africa to counter the West Asia slowdown.

Qatar, the world's top liquefied natural gas exporter and one of the richest countries per capita, faces a 46.5 billion riyal ($12.8 billion) budget deficit this year because of the continued fall in oil and gas revenues.

Qatar had to cut planned spending on building healthcare facilities by about two-thirds in 2016 following the drop in energy prices but expenditure on its World Cup-related projects remains unchanged, Reuters said quoting official sources.

Al Rayyan stadium will incorporate cooling technology to help ease Qatar's sweltering temperatures. The stadium's capacity will also be reduced to 21,000 after the tournament with the upper tier of seats being sent to a developing nation.