Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry has extended the tender closing date to 23 August for the estimated $120m expansion of the general cargo terminal at the port of Salalah.

Firms were originally asked to submit bids by 12 July following previous delays in the bidding process. The reason for the extension is not clear.

The expansion of the general container terminal involves the construction of an extra 1,200 metres of multi-purpose berths, a new northern breakwater, facilities for dry-bulk commodities and a new liquids jetty.

The expansion work will increase the capacity at the terminal to 40 million tonnes of dry-bulk commodities and five million tonnes of liquid products each year.

The expansion of the terminal is part of the wider $645m expansion of the port of Salalah. The masterplan will be executed over a period of 20 years. Other plans involve a $525m expansion of terminal two, which is a container terminal (MEED 31:3:10).

Lebanon’s Khatib & Alami and Netherlands-based Royal Haskoning have prepared the designs for terminal two. The development of terminal two will involve the construction of three deepwater berths, which will increase the port’s container-handling capacity to 9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year.

Further phases of the masterplan will see this container terminal expanded to reach a total quay length of 8km, giving the port a capacity of 15 million TEUs a year by 2030.