Oman’s Transport and Communications Ministry has invited firms to bid by 29 July for the construction supervision contract for a road link in Sohar Port and Freezone located in the sultanate’s northern Batinah governorate.

The road will extend from the Al-Had Interchange on Batinah Highway to the Sohar Industrial Estate Interchange on Batinah Expressway.

MEED understands the Sohar Port and Freezone is in advanced negotiations with two major industrial investors, which are likely to locate their facilities in the second phase of the free zone located near the port.

Growth in the free zone is expected to require new roads linking it to the main expressway.

Freight volume at Sohar Port in the first quarter of 2018 grew by 30 per cent compared to the corresponding period the previous year. Some 857 vessels also called at the port in the first quarter of this year, up 66 per cent over the same period last year.