Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry has invited contractors to submit bids for the deal to build package 11 of the Batinah expressway project.

Firms have until 19 January to submit bids for the construction contract.

The ministry is also expecting to receive bids for four other packages of the $3.6bn road scheme before the end of the year. For packages 7 and 8, proposals are due on 24 November, and for packages 9 and 10, prices are due on 8 and 19 December respectively.

To date, Oman has awarded almost $2.1bn of construction deals for the first six packages of the project.

In August, India’s Nagarjuna Construction Company was awarded a RO143m ($371.3m) contract to build the retendered second package of the Batinah expressway project in Oman.

In 2013, fellow Indian firm Simplex Infrastructures won a $318m deal for package three, while another Indian firm, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), was awarded a $353m deal for package four.

Also in 2013, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) won a $322m contract for package six, while a joint venture led by the local Federici Stirling Batco secured a $345m deal for package five.

In 2012, the local Galfar Engineering & Contracting was awarded a $361m contract for the first package on the expressway project.

The new 265-kilometre-long Batinah Expressway, Oman’s biggest road scheme, will create the first dual four-lane motorway in the sultanate, and will link Muscat to the new Sohar port and the UAE border.