India`s Simplex Infrastructures has won the third package of Batinah Expressway with a capital expenditure of OMR122.35 million.

The Tender Board had awarded the third package for 43-km on Sunday.

The Indian firm won the project after pushing aside 15 firms, which include Turkey`s Makyol, UAE-based Al Naboodah Contracting, Galfar Engineering and Sezai Turkes-Feyzie Akkaya.

The first package for linking Barka with Suwaiq worth OMR139 million was bagged by Galfar Engineering.

Six packages

The Batinah Expressway project, which is expected to cost almost a billion rial for the entire project, is divided into six packages for construction purpose, and tenders have already been floated for majority of these packages.

The second package of Batinah Expressway, a contract for which was cancelled after awarding to a consortium of Malaysian construction firm WCT Engineering and Oman Roads Engineering Company, will be re-tendered by the Tender Board on behalf of the Ministry of Transport and Communications soon. The OMR123.2 million contract, which was awarded to the consortium in August 2012, was cancelled last week.

Re-tendering report submitted

The United States-based multinational consultant Parsons, which is advising the ministry on design and supervision of 180-kilometre stretch of the 265-kilometre-long expressway, has submitted its report for re-tendering the 45-kilometre stretch of the four-lane expressway.

For design purpose, the whole project is divided into three packages and third package for 85-kilometres was bagged by Turkish consultant Botek.

Batinah Expressway is one of the biggest road projects in the Sultanate of Oman.

It extends Muscat Expressway all the way to the Oman-United Arab Emirates border Khatmat Malaha. The expressway project is vital for developing the region`s economic potentia