Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport (DoT) has received bids from contractors for two further phases of the Mafraq to Ghuweifat highway scheme.

Firms submitted prices for phase 4a on 3 February and phase 4b in January. The prices for 4a are unavailable as yet. For 4b, the local Ghantoot Transport & General Contracting Company is the low bidder.

The prices are:

• Ghantoot Transport & General Contracting Company AED1.126bn ($0.307bn)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)/Delma Engineering Projects Company (local) AED1.245bn
• Saif bin Darwish (local) AED1.247bn
• Al-Jaber Group (local) AED1.248bn
• China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China) AED1.282bn
• Habtoor Leighton Group (local/Australia) AED1.298bn
• Tristar (local) AED1.299bn
• Al-Naboodah Contracting Company (local) AED1.369bn
• Al-Geemi & Partners Contracting Company (local) AED1.46bn
• Joannou & Paraskevaides (Cyprus) AED1.273bn
• Admak (local/Kuwait) AED1.483bn

The DoT opened prices for the contract to upgrade section 3a last year. The low bidder is L&T - Delma Mafraq JV, a joint venture of Larsen & Toubro and Delma Engineering Projects Company, with a price of AED1.05bn, which is about 4 per cent lower than the price of AED1.09bn submitted by Saif bin Darwish.

The other bidders are Ghantoot, Habtoor Leighton, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Al-Jaber, Tristar, Al-Naboodah, the local Hilalco and Joannou & Paraskevaides.

The improvements to the 350-kilometre Mafraq to Ghuweifat highway were planned to be executed as a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme, but the DoT cancelled the plans in May 2011, after receiving bids in December 2009.

The DoT is also evaluating bids from contractors for the first section of the Mohammed bin Zayed road (formerly known as Emirates road) extension in northern Abu Dhabi running from the Dubai border. This contract involves building 33km of new highway from the Dubai border towards Abu Dhabi city. It will be a dual carriageway with four lanes running in each direction.

The work also involves building three new interchanges. The first will be built on the border in the Seih Sedeira area and will be grade-separated. The second will be at grade and will be built in the Maha Forest area. The third interchange will also be grade-separated and will be built in the Al-Samha area and will connect to the existing Sheikh Maktoum bin Saeed highway near Taweelah and the new Khalifa port.