Global Arab Network | Oman inviting bids for Sohar Airport airfield development

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Oman inviting bids for Sohar Airport airfield development

Global Arab Network - - Mohamed Tamer

Wednesday, 19 August 2009 16:50

Development of a green-field airport at Sohar is set to make further headway with the government on Monday inviting bids for the key airfield infrastructure package of the project. According to officials, the airfield infrastructure contract is the second of three packages that constitute the overall scope of the Sohar Airport project. As part of this phase, the selected contractor will build a 4,000-metre runway with turning loops at the ends, in addition to a full-length taxiway with high speed exits.

With a width of 75 metres, the runway will be designed to handle some of the largest aircraft in operation today, including the Superjumbo A380.Other works envisaged in this package are airside roads, power and water networks, fuel fire fighting systems, and navigation aids. The Ministry of Transport and Communications is overseeing the implementation of Sohar Airport, which is designed to handle 500,000 passengers and 100,000 tonnes of air cargo per year. It will also serve as an emergency alternative to Muscat International Airport.

When operational by the year 2012, the airport will further anchor Sohar’s position as an industrial and economic hub of the Batinah region. The facility will serve as a new gateway for domestic and international traffic into a region that has already attracted billions of dollars in mega industries set up within a world-scale industrial port. Several billions more are expected to be ploughed into an ambitious free zone in the making, as well as a raft of major tourism and real estate initiatives planned in Sohar and the wider Batinah region.

Importantly, the airport will also add to the development of a truly multimodal transport network in Sohar encompassing air, rail and road communications. A proposed expressway and rail network running the length of the Batinah region will provide high-speed transport links between Sohar and the rest of the country. Work on the airport project is already under way at a site just off Falaj al Qabail roundabout, about 10 kilometres northwest of downtown Sohar city. The well-known construction firm Strabag Oman has commenced work on the first phase of the project, covering site preparation works, and construction of access roads, among other services.

The airport terminal will be built in the third phase. It will feature a passenger terminal building integrated with an air traffic control tower, cargo building, catering facility, air rescue and fire fighting building, and facilities for ground service and airfield maintenance equipment. Egypt-based engineering consultancy group Hamza Associates is the design consultant for the Sohar Airport project. Hamza Associates is supported by US based engineering, architecture and planning specialists Robert & Company and Burgess & Niple in the design of the facility.

France’s ADPi has been appointed project manager to supervise Sohar Airport, among other domestic airports currently under development elsewhere around the Sultanate. Sohar Airport is being executed in tandem with a host of green-field airport developments around the Sultanate, as well as the expansion of the Muscat and Salalah international airports. In June, Dr Khamis bin Mubarak al Alawi, Minister of Transport and Communications, signed airport and aviation development contracts valued at a total of nearly RO 580 million. The lion’s share was earmarked for contracts linked to the modernisation of the Muscat and Salalah airports. (Omannet)

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