The low bidder is the local National Construction & Trading with a price of RO43m ($112m).

The other bidders are Desert Line Projects at RO63m, Galfar Engineering & Contracting also at RO63m, both local, Turkey’s Erenport Group at RO59m, and Iran’s Abad Rahan Pars at RO61m.

Egypt's Hamza & Partners is carrying out consultancy work on the project.

The contract comes as Oman continues to push ahead with its programme of new airports. New facilities are also planned for Haima, Adam, Ras al-Hadd and Shaleem.

The government has set aside $44m for consultancy studies into the projects (MEED 23:6:08).