Monday, Jun 29, 2009
Muscat: Oman signed on Saturday a pair of contracts that involve the construction of a new superhighway extending from the capital Muscat all the way to the sultanate's border with the UAE.
The 275-kilometre Southern Batinah Expressway will run the length of the Batinah region, a populous coastal swathe that is shaping up as an economic and industrial powerhouse in the sultanate.
Dr Khamis Bin Mubarak Al Alawi, Minister of Transport and Communications, signed the agreements with Parsons International and Turkey's Bosporus Technical Consulting Corporation (BOTEK) as lead consultants for separate sections of the expressway.
The contracts were among 17 agreements signed by the government on Saturday pertaining to the design and construction of roads in various parts of the country.
The Southern Batinah Expressway is by far the most high-profile road project currently under development in the sultanate.
The highway is considred vital to realising the Batinah region's immense potential as an industrial and economic hub centring on the industrial port and Special Economic Zone at Sohar.
The expressway project will also form a key component of a comprehensive multi-modal transport network in the Batinah region that also includes plans for the sultanate's first railway line, and a new airport at Sohar.
The Southern Batinah Expressway will start from near Naseem Garden, one of Oman's biggest parks situated just outside the capital.
Extending mostly in parallel to the existing Batinah Highway, the new artery will hug the foothills of the North Hajar mountains as it travels all the way to Khatmat Malaha on Oman's border with the UAE.
The new expressway project is essentially an extension of the Muscat Expressway, a $342 million project currently under construction on the outskirts of the capital. When operational by mid-2010, the Muscat Expressway will dramatically ease traffic flows in and out of the capital region.
By Staff Report
Gulf News 2009.
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