Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry has awarded India’s Larsen & Toubro and the local Khalid bin Ahmed & Sons (KAS) contracts to build section 2 of the Bidbid-Sur triple-lane dual carriageway project.

Larsen & Toubro won a RO98.3m ($255.6m) contract for section 2A, which covers a 76-kilometre stretch of road, while KAS won a RO91.3m contract for section 2B, which entails 56km of roadworks.   

These are the two last packages of the 245km-long carriageway work, which is aimed at easing traffic in the Bidbid-Sur sector. The road between Bidbid and Sur is a major transport link in the sultanate, connecting the capital city of Muscat to the Sharqiyah region in the northeastern part of Oman.

In February 2011, the ministry awarded a joint venture of Italy’s Astaldi and Turkey’s Ozkar Insaat a RO125.2m contract to build phase 1a of the project, which entails the triple-laning of a 40km stretch from Sarur in the Samayil wilayat to Wadi al-Aqq.

In August 2011, a joint venture of Turkey’s Sezai Turkes-Feyzi Akkaya (STFA) and the UAE/Australian Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG) was awarded the RO117m contract for phase 1b of the road scheme, which involves building a 75km stretch of road that will take the dualised carriageway to Ibra.