Friday 18 / October / 2024
Muscat: Work on the third package of Al Batinah Expressway has “almost stopped” due to issues with the contractor, the Ministry of Transport and Communication reported.
The ministry explained that the current contractor failed to comply with his commitments which led to the work being halted.
“The ministry paid the contractor all his financial dues for the works which were achieved,” the ministry stated.
Therefore, the ministry said it has withdrawn the project from the contractor and will grant it to another to complete the third package of the 272km road project.
However, the ministry assured that works on the other packages are still on-going.
“Contractors work with main companies which are building the road, their contracts are not directly linked with the ministry but with the main contractors,” the ministry said, assuring that it is working on passing the financial dues to the main contractors “though there has been delay in paying the dues.”
Package 3 covers 46 km from Wilayat Suwaiq to Wilayat Saham.
Last year, an 18-kilometre (km) section of the highway from Muscat to Wilayat Barka had opened and commuters from Barka saw a great improvement in the time taken for them to travel to work.
