Oman’s Transport and Communication Ministry has awarded a RO132.6m ($345m) contract to a joint venture led by the local Federici Stirling Batco for package five of the Batinah expressway project.

The work includes building a 41-kilometre stretch of roadway, along with three major bridges that will take the expressway over wadis.

A total of 19 local and international bidders competed for the deal, including Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Corporation (CCC), Oman Gulf Enterprises, and India’s Larsen and Toubro.

Being constructed at a cost of $2.6bn, the 260km Batinah expressway is one of the largest road schemes in the sultanate. Targeted for completion in 2016, the eight-lane road link will connect the Muscat expressway in the Wilayat of Barka to Khamat Malaha in the Wilayat of Shinas, and is expected to reduce the travel time between Muscat and the UAE border by at least an hour.

The project is divided into six packages for construction purposes. In 2012, the ministry awarded the $361m contract for package one of the scheme to the local Galfar Engineering. The deal for the second package, awarded in 2012 then cancelled three months ago, has been retendered by the ministry.

In April this year, the contract for package three of the expressway was awarded to India’s Simplex Infrastructures for $318m. Earlier this month, CCC won a $322m deal for the sixth package of the project, while Larsen & Toubro was awarded a $353m contract for the project’s fourth package in July.