A total of 33 companies have submitted prequalification documents for the second section of the new road connecting Khasab and Lima in the Musandam governorate, in Oman.

Estimated to cost $1bn to build, the Diba-Lima-Khasab project involves building a new road that will connect the town of Khasab on the peninsula’s north coast and the remote town of Lima on the eastern coast, which is not currently accessible by road. The project involves digging at least seven tunnels through the mountainous region.

Khasab is connected to Ras al-Khaimah, the northern-most emirate of the UAE, by a road running along the peninsula’s west coast.

Among the companies that have expressed interest in bidding for the project include South Korea’s Daewoo Engineering & Construction, Germany’s Hochtief, India’s Larsen & Toubro, Egypt’s Orascom and China State Construction.

Oman continues to develop large road projects as it seeks to bolster its economy by developing a modernised and integrated transport infrastructure.

Last week, Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry awarded six new road contracts worth a total of $414m. This included a $318m contract to India’s Simplex Infrastructures and local partner Konstruktor Engineering for construction of the third package of the Al-Batinah Southern Expressway.  

Earlier this month, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) won a $322m contract for package six of the Batinah Expressway project. The tender is among a total of 11 packages on the Batinah Expressway, which will extend from the current Muscat Expressway to Khatmat Malaha, located on the Oman/UAE border. The entire project is estimated to cost about $2.6bn.