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The Qatari government has placed huge investment into developing a local transportation network and to improving accessibility between Qatar and the outside world by land, air and sea.

Over the past few years, a great deal has been achieved in terms of building ports, airports and roads - and much more is already under construction or in planning.

With the imminent expansion of Qatar Airways, the country is building the New Doha International Airport, capable of handling 50million passengers a year when it is completed in 2015.

Qatar is conveniently at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, making it a natural stop-over for long haul flights going east or west. Doha currently receives regular scheduled flights from 27 airlines, arriving from cities all around the world.

Construction of the New Doha International Airport is already underway. The airport will be built four kilometres from the existing one, on a 5,400-acre site.

The new airport, on the outskirts of the city, is being built in response to a projected increasing demand for international passengers to the region. The current airport handles 4.2 million passengers per year, whereas the new airport will be designed to handle 12.5 million per year after the first phase of construction.

The first phase will cost US$2.5billion, while phases two and three are projected to cost an additional US$5billion.

When finished, the new airport will be approximately two-thirds the size of the city of Doha itself.

During the construction process, the old airport is being expanded and refurbished at a cost of $140million. This to increase its capacity to 7.2 million passengers per year for the interim period before the new airport takes over.

The first phase of construction of the new airport, due to be completed in 2009, will include two parallel runways designed specifically to accommodate the new Airbus A380-800 'Super Jumbo'.

A three-storey terminal building will also be constructed.

The airport will have a luxury hotel and a transit hotel. The complex will also include a cargo terminal, additional hard standing areas for the passenger terminal, hangar space for two A380-800s and three A340s at the same time, and a maintenance centre.

Finally the airport, which has been described as "a small city within a city" will include a business park, a free trade zone, a courier and mail facility and a general aviation facility.

The second phase of construction will include the addition of a further 16 gates and an extension of the terminal building.

In addition, there will be a suspended monorail system for passenger transit through the terminal. A further luxury hotel will be constructed to accommodate the additional passenger capacity of more than 25 million per year passing through the airport.

The third phase will include the addition of a further 40 contact gates, which would bring the final total to 80.

The projected date for final completion is 2015. When fully completed the new airport will be will be the first in the world purpose-built to accommodate the A380-800 Super Jumbos - able to service six simultaneously.

Although there is currently no railway network in Qatar, plans are already under way to build one, in particular as part of the construction of the new city of Lusail on the northern outskirts of Doha.

Lusail's plans include both an underground and aboveground train network, which will be fully integrated with a new rail system in Doha itself. In addition, it plans to develop a new water-taxi service to run along the Doha coastline.

Public transport in Qatar made a major leap forward in 2004 with the launch of The Qatar Transport Company, more commonly known by its Arabic name Mowasalat. This is a government-owned bus, taxi and limousine service.

The turquoise and white Mowasalat taxis - known as 'Karwa' - are available in all parts of Doha and can be hailed from the side of the road, booked in advance, or found at taxi ranks at the airport and dotted around the city.

Mowasalat also operates a large fleet of air-conditioned public buses that run along several routes in and out of Doha from its City Centre hub, Al Ghanim Station.