Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry has invited companies to bid by 12 October for a major road project in the interior.

The tender is open to first grade and international contractors. It involves upgrading the road between Birkat al-Mouz and the Sayq plateau close to Nizwa.

Oman has tendered and awarded a number of contracts in 2009 aimed at improving the road network across the sultanate.

In July the local Desert Line Projects won a RO23m ($59.4m) contract to build the road between Argoutt and Sorfait in the Dhofar governorate near the Yemeni border in the south (MEED 9:7:09).

In June the joint venture of Italy’s Federici Stirling and Lebanon’s Batco won a RO23m contract to upgrade the road between Zurub and Buraimi, and in March, the local Oman Company for Building & Contracting won a OR19.5m contract to build the second phase of the Salalah bypass.