Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry has received a total of 22 bids from 11 companies for a contract to dualise a 33-kilometre stretch of road between Ibri and Yankul in the sultanate.

Each of the firms submitted two bids for the deal. The low bid of RO37.4m ($97.2m) was submitted by Turkey’s Yuksel Construction Company, which was 5.4 per cent lower than the local Khalid Bin Ahmed & Sons’ bid of RO38.1m. The third-lowest bid of RO38.9m was submitted by the local Galfar Engineering.

Oman has recently launched a flurry of road schemes as it looks to bolster its economy by developing more modern and integrated transport infrastructure.

Earlier in June, India’s Nagarjuna Construction Company submitted the low bid of RO33.8m for a contract to dualise a 145km stretch of road between Izki and Nizwa. The firm’s bid was 9 per cent lower than the RO36.72m bid by Yuksel Construction Company. The local Al-Shanfri Trading Company submitted the third-lowest bid of RO36.79m.

In May, Nagarjuna submitted the low bid for package two of the Batinah Expressway project in Oman. The new 265km-long expressway, which is Oman’s biggest road scheme, will create the first dual four-lane motorway in the sultanate, linking Muscat to the new Sohar port and the UAE border.

The project has been divided into six packages, with only package two, which covers a 45km stretch from Suwaiq to Shinas, not under contract. In 2012, the tender for the second package was issued to a consortium of Malaysian construction firm WCT Engineering and Oman Roads Engineering Company, but the contract was cancelled in 2013 and retendered in July.

In September, the Transport & Communications Ministry reissued a tender for package two. On 1 May this year, bids were opened for the package, with Nagarjuna submitting the low bid of $370m. Galfar Engineering submitted the second-lowest bid of $397m, followed by Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), which submitted a price of $413m.

In 2012, Galfar Engineering won a $361m deal for package one of the Batinah Expressway project. In 2013, package three of the scheme was awarded to India’s Simplex Infrastructures for $318m, while India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was awarded a $353m contract for package four.

In another two contracts awarded last year, CCC won a $322m deal for package six, while a joint venture led by the local Federici Stirling Batco secured a $345m deal for package five.