Qatar\'s Public Works Authority, also known as Ashghal, said on Wednesday it has signed contracts for infrastructure projects worth QR40bn ($10.9bn). Six new contracts were inked to improve Qatar\'s local roads and drainage network, state news agency QNA said. Ashghal\'s president Nasser Al Mawlawi said the award of the contracts represented a \"significant step towards delivering the infrastructure required to achieve Qatar\'s National Development Plan\". Jalal Al Salhiat, the authority\'s director of the infrastructure affairs department, added that the infrastructure upgrade would cover the entire state of Qatar and would be split into five zones. Each zone will have a general engineering consultant to provide design and construction supervision services ver a five year period. Ashghal said Parsons Brinkerhoff International had been appointed as programme management consultant with other companies awarded contracts for the five zones.