India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) leads road contractors across the Middle East and North Africa region (Mena) in terms of value of projects under construction.

L&T has an estimated $2.57bn worth of projects currently under execution, according regional projects tracker MEED Projects.

The next largest contractor, QD- SBG Construction, a joint venture of Qatari Diar and Saudi Binladin Group, has $2.35bn worth of projects under way. It is followed in third rank by a team of  Kuwait’s Combined Group Contracting and South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction (E&C) with ongoing projects are each estimated to be worth $2.26bn. Saudi Arabia’s Al-Rajhi Contracting Group and China Communications Group round up the top five, with projects under construction worth an estimated  $2.0bn for each contractor

Nearly $22bn worth of roads projects was awarded in 2015 across the Mena region, including Iran. This represents a 25 per cent decline over the value of contracts awarded in 2014, where a growth of 62 per cent was recorded.

By far Qatar has the largest active master planned road scheme across the region. This includes the $20bn expressway programme and the $14.6bn local roads and drainage programme (LRDP).

Other major road projects under execution include the Emirates road master plan and the Mafraq-Ghuweifat road development in the UAE. One third of the 328km Mafraq-Ghuweifat road has been completed as August 2015, with nearly two more years remaining on the project prior to completion.

Kuwait has also awarded several hundred million dollars’ worth of road contracts this year including the upgrades for Nawaseeb road, Western section and the roads that link Mina Abdulla city and Wafra, and Mina al-Zour and Wafra. Nearly a dozen projects with a budget estimated at $4.5bn are currently tendering or in the prequalification stage and are due to be awarded in 2016. These include several sections of the northern regional road and the Al-Ghouse road schemes.

In Oman, work is under way for several multi-billion roads infrastructure projects including the Batinah Expressway and coastal road projects, roads in the Sohar free zone area, and several other dualisation projects.