A tender has been floated by the Omani Ministry of Transport and Communications for dualising a section of the Bidbid-Sur road.
The new highway,which aims to ease traffic in the Sur-Bidbid sector and open up the region for investments by providing easy transport infrastructure, is part of a $3.2bn government investment plan to build various road projects during period of the Eighth Five Year Plan (2011-2015) in different parts of the country.
The first two packages of the project “IA and IB” have already been awarded to two Turkish engineering giants Iskar Insaat and SezaiTurkes-FeyziAkkaya (STFA), respectively.
The current package is for making the carriageway between Ibra and Sur into four lanes from two lanes now, which stretches for some 80km.
Other major road projects in Oman include Nizwa-Thumrait road dualisation for a cost of $649.5m, Al Batinah Express road, Al Batinah Costal Road at a cost of %519.6m and dualisation of Ibri-Jibrin road at a cost of $190m.
Contracts for some of the roads have already been awarded, while others are currently at the tendering stage.