Oman’s Ministry of Transport and Communication received eight bids for a contract to dualise a 145km stretch of road between Izki and Nizwa in Oman.

India’s Nagarjuna Construction Company submitted the low bid of RO33.8m ($88m), which was 9 per cent lower than the RO36.72m bid by Turkey’s Yuksel Construction Company. Local Al-Shanfri Trading Company submitted the third lowest bid of RO36.79m.

The ministry floated a tender for the contract in October 2013.

In May, Nagarjuna submitted the low bid for package 2 of the Batinah Expressway project in Oman.

The new 265-kilometre-long expressway, which is Oman’s biggest road scheme, will create the first dual four-lane motorway in the sultanate, linking Muscat to the new Sohar Port and the UAE border.

The project has been divided into six packages, with only package 2, which covers a 45km stretch from Suwaiq to Shinas, not under contract. In 2012, the tender for package 2 was issued to a consortium of Malaysian construction firm WCT Engineering and Oman Roads Engineering Company, but the contract was cancelled in 2013 and retendered in July.

In September, Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry reissued a tender for package 2. On 1 May, bids were opened for the package, with Nagarjuna Construction Company submitting the low bid of $370m. The local Galfar Engineering & Contracting submitted the second-lowest bid of $397m, followed by Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), which submitted a price of $413m.

In 2012, Galfar Engineering & Contracting Company won a $361m deal for package 1 of the Batinah Expressway project. In 2013, package 3 of the scheme was awarded to India’s Simplex Infrastructures for $318m, while India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was awarded a $353m contract for package 4.

In another two contracts awarded last year, CCC won a $322m deal for package 6, while a joint venture led by the local Federici Stirling Batco secured a $345m deal for package 5.