Brisbane City Council is progressing with its $944 million Brisbane Metro, first announced in 2016, with plans to go to market with the project within weeks.

To date, the council has finalised the metro routes, the location of the stabling depot and released the draft design report, but many aspects of the multimillion-dollar project remain unknown.

The council has now said it wanted a 25-metre-long metro vehicle that could carry 150 people, had Wi-Fi and could run through underground tunnels at the Cultural Centre and Adelaide Street.

Now it must find someone who can build it.

Lord mayor Graham Quirk said the significant contracting plan of works was expected to be approved by the council on Friday before being released to the market globally to call for companies to build the inner-city infrastructure of underground tunnels and stations and deliver the new metro fleet.

“The Brisbane Metro is now fully funded and we are getting on with the job to engage with global industries to deliver this world-class project,” he said.

Cr Quirk said the council needed to look globally as metro vehicles were not constructed in Brisbane or Australia at present.

"Where possible we will be seeking Brisbane partners or Australian partners but we will be going international on this because it is a project of significance where vehicles currently of this sort are only constructed overseas," he said.

"Where we’ve got an equal footing obviously Brisbane companies will come first."

The council’s public and active transport chairman Adrian Schrinner said the council would begin formal engagement with the market and an industry briefing to outline the manner in which council would undertake procurement for the Metro vehicles and construction of significant infrastructure in July.

“Council is now gearing up to start procurement for a fleet of up to 60 Metro vehicles that are able to carry up to 150 passengers, be up to 25 metres in length, able to operate on the existing busway, have Wi-Fi access, real-time travel updates and low floor design for quicker boarding and alighting,” he said.

Cr Schrinner said the council would release a detailed set of criteria to the market and expected to award the vehicle tender mid-2019 before testing a pilot vehicle in mid-2020.

The council would also seek expressions of interest for the significant infrastructure works, including the Cultural Centre station and tunnelling beneath Adelaide Street in July, with the tender expected to be awarded by the end of 2019.

The council was already looking for and hiring employees specifically for the delivery of the Brisbane Metro project including project managers for the early works and design and assurance work.