The Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (Nexi) has provided export credit insurance for the construction and maintenance of the Doha metro in Qatar by a consortium including four Japanese companies.

The turnkey contract for rolling stock and railway systems for phase 1 of the project was awarded jointly to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corp, Hitachi, Kinki Sharyo and Thales, in February 2015.

Under the terms of the contract, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will undertake project management and system integration, as well as the track, power supply, platform screen doors and tunnel ventilation.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Corp and Kinki Sharyo will jointly supply 75 three-car driverless trainsets and Thales will take care of communications-based train control, telecoms, a security system, an operations control centre and an automatic fare collection system.

The contract also includes up to 20 years of maintenance by Hitachi.

Nexi’s insurance will cover Qatar’s political risk and the credit risk of Qatar Railways Company (QRC), the project developer. This will Nexi’s largest underwritten amount, according to a statement by the Japanese agency, though the amount in question has not been disclosed.

The Doha metro project is part of the Qatar National Vision 2030, which includes several large-scale projects such as airport and port constructions ahead of the country’s hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2022.