South Korean industrial giant Daewoo has announced that its group company Daewoo Engineering & Construction (E&C) has been awarded a $590m contract to build an expressway in Qatar.

According to a statement from the Korean company, it signed the agreement with the Qatar Public Works Authority earlier this month for the project which will see it widen a 4.5km-stretch of existing four-lane highway in southern Doha to eight and 14 lanes, add a further 4km of expressway and construct three multilevel intersections.

The South Korean Yonhap news agency added, quoting unnamed Daewoo officials that the firm was initially awarded the project last year for $730m for a 15km stretch of road in the same vicinity. However, after changes to the original plan, the deal has now been signed for $590m, according to company officials.

“With the deal signed this week, the company now has a strong chance to win additional projects ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar,” Yonhap quoted an official as saying.

Qatar is continuing its aggressive development of various infrastructure elements in preparation for its hosting of the football World Cup in 2022, it added.

The new contract with Daewoo is for the Qatari capital’s E-Ring expressway, Daewoo said, and the work is expected to take 42 months to complete.

According to Yonhap, the timing of the contract comes as Daewoo E&C announces it has introduced stricter auditing rules, after accounting firm Deloitte Anjin reportedly refused to audit its Q3 earnings reports, due to insufficient financial documents. It is believed that the new rules could mean Daewoo E&C will report an operating loss in Q4, its first since the first quarter of 2013.