MUSCAT -- In the latest of a succession of airport-related contracts tendered out by the government in recent months, the Ministry of Transport and Communications has invited bids for a key phase of the Duqm International Airport project in the Wusta region. International and local construction firms have been lining up to bid for the Airfield Infrastructure Package of the Duqm airport project since it was tendered out late last week.
Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), Strabag Oman LLC, Erenport naat Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim, Larsen & Toubro (Oman) LLC, Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction, Desert Line Projects, and Galfar Engineering & Contracting LLC are among the companies that have so far signalled their interest in bidding for the contract. The green-field airport project is central to the government's goal of developing Duqm into a major industrial and economic hub anchored by a world-scale port and dry dock complex.
Designed for a capacity of 500,000 passengers per year, the international-size airport is not only key to supporting inward investment into this area, but it also promises to open up large tracts of this remote, yet idyllic coastal stretch, to tourism. A local contractor, Desert Line Projects, has already commenced work on the first phase of the airport project, which is coming up on a roughly 2,700-hectare site not far from a proposed industrial hub. Under a contract valued at RO 27.253 million, Desert Line Projects is developing access roads and utilities necessary to serve the airport during the operational phase.
The Airfield Infrastructure package, currently under tender, covers the construction of a 4,020-metre-long runway designed and built to Code F standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). A pair of taxiways linking the runway and aircraft parking apron will also be constructed, along with a passenger aircraft apron.
The selected contractor will also install airfield ground lighting and ground based navigation and meteorological aids, among other facilities. A fuel farm and apron fuel hydrant system may be added to the scope of the contract during the tendering phase. In the third and final phase of the airport project, likely to be tendered out sometime next year, the passenger terminal building will be constructed, along with buildings for the cargo terminal, control tower, catering facilities, fire station, staff housing, and other landside support facilities.
The ministry has retained the services of Parsons International Limited to provide Programme Management and Consultancy Services for the Duqm Airport project, which is slated to be operational in 2012. Significantly, the tender for the Duqm project comes close on the heels of a similar tender issued by the ministry for the airfield infrastructure package of Sohar Airport.
Like Duqm, Sohar will also feature a 500,000 passengers-per-year capacity terminal, 4-km runway and other facilities to enable it to handle some of the largest aircraft presently in operation. Four other domestic airports are under various stages of design and construction at Ras al Hadd, Adam, Haima and Shaleem.
By Conrad Prabhu
Oman Daily Observer 2009
