Strabag Oman has won a $210.3m contract to build access roads and infrastructure at the $2.6bn Duqm port and dry dock.

The contract also involves diverting some of the wadis, according to Said bin Hamdoon al-Harthy, undersecretary for ports and maritime affairs at Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry.

Al-Harthy says the scope of the work involves the construction of more than 30 kilometres of road.

The ministry had received bids from four other bidders, which are the local Galfar Engineering & Contracting, local National United Engineering Constructing, Spain’s Assignia Infraestructuras and Athens-based Consolidated Contracting Company. Assignia Infraestructuras was the low bidder for the deal (MEED 12:9:11).

The new Duqm port is part of a larger plan to improve the overall transport infrastructure at Duqm. The port will also include a freezone, an industrial area and a petrochemicals complex with a crude oil export terminal. The port is due to start operating in mid-2012.

The client has signed a $94m loan with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and a $660m loan with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.