The local Ali & Company Trading & Contracting group is the frontrunner to win a contract to design and construct a road from Al-Zahia to Qarat al-Milh, in the Al-Dakhliya region of Oman after submitting the lowest price in a competitive bid round.

Oman’s Transport and Communications Ministry received bids for the deal on 1 March, bid documents seen by MEED show.

Ali & Company submitted the lowest price of OR2.7m ($7m) for the deal. This is 5.3 per cent lower than the price of OR2.85m submitted by the second lowest bidder, the local Al-Nahdha al-Omaniah Company. Desert Line Projects, also local, submitted the third lowest bid of OR2.88m.

The other bidders were the Oman Gulf Company, Asas Civil Contractors, Gulf Petrochemical Services, Galfar Engineering and Contracting, all local, and the local/Austrian Strabag.