Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry signed a contract with India’s Nagarjuna Construction Company for package two of the Batinah Expressway project on 17 March.

The contract is worth RO142.5m ($370m).

It involves the construction of 44.75 kilometres of dual four-lane motorway.

It is the latest package to be awarded on the Batinah expressway project, a 265km-long link between Muscat and the new Sohar Port and the UAE border.

Package 2 was originally assigned to a consortium of Malaysia’s WCT Engineering and Oman Roads Engineering Company in 2012. The contract was cancelled and retendered in July 2013. Nagarjuna submitted the low bid in May 2014.

The ministry signed a total of 25 road construction and supervision contracts worth RO376.4 on the same day.

Local Galfar Engineering & Contracting signed an RO65m contract to dualise the Barka-Nakhal road. The work involves 37.5km of dual-carriageway and 27km of service roads.

It also signed a RO40.5m contract on the 35.5km-long Taqah-Mirbat dual-carriageway project.

Turkey’s Yuksel Insaat and local Abu Hatim Company signed a RO42m contract for construction works on the second phase of the Ibri-Yanqul dual-carriageway project, after submitting the low bid.

The work involves the construction of 34km of the Ibri to Yanqul dual-carriageway, two tunnels for vehicles and the 2.7km Yanqul subway. It also includes the rehabilitation of 14km of the Al-Draiz-Bat road, 14km of the Hajirmat–Maqnayat road and 12km of the Dhahir-Al-Fawaris road.