Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry has received prices from four contractors for a building package at Sohar regional airport in the sultanate.

The low bidder is India’s Larsen & Toubro, with a price of RO35m ($91m), which is about 22 per cent lower than the price of RO45m submitted by the local/UK Carillion Alawi. The other two bidders are Cyprus-based Joannou & Paraskevaides (J&P) at RO55m and Austria’s Strabag at RO61m.

Package three includes the construction of a passenger terminal building, cargo terminal and other buildings. Sohar airport is being built 10 kilometres northwest of Sohar and will serve the Batinah region and the growing flows of cargo going in and out of the expanding Sohar port. The planned capacity of the terminal is 500,000 passengers a year and the total floor area is 9,000 square metres.

Package three was retendered last year.

The first two packages for the Sohar airport project, covering the civil works package and the construction of the runway, were secured by Strabag in 2009 and 2010.