Bids for the construction of phase one of Qatar's planned $275 million Logistics City are expected to be invited in August, the project's manager said.

The 500,000 sq m (5.38 million sq ft) project, part of plans to create a hub for warehousing and logistics businesses in the Qatari capital Doha, will be operated by Qatar Navigation.

'We would like to have it operational in 22 months,' said Ahmed Al-Kowsi, projects manager at Qatar Navigation, at a Meed conference.   

The project, now in the design phase, is expected to cost 1 billion riyals ($274.9 million), Al-Kowsi said. It will be located near the planned $14 billion New Doha airport and a planned new deep-water port, expected to be operational by 2014.

Qatar, the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, has been pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure development to diversify the economy away from hydrocarbons and help it become a transport hub between Europe and Asia. - Reuters