PHASE Seven – the final phase of expansion – of Oman’s Sohar Industrial Estate has moved a step forward with 16 firms having submitted technical offers for the project.

According to the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE), which floated the tenders in August, most of the bidders have included local companies.

Sohar Industrial Estate is one of the biggest industrial areas under the PEIE covering 21.6 million sq m. Of this, 10.7 million sq m has been developed and subdivided into 226 plots. The last phase will be spread over eight million sq m.

The estate is home to 60 businesses, 35 units of which are under construction and a further 55 are expected to come on stream in the near future. On the estate’s doorstep is Sohar Port, a large three-phase project which began late-1999.

Among the bidders are Towell Infrastructure Projects Company, National United Engineering and Contracting Company, Galfar Engineering and Contracting Company, Al Khalili Construction, Khalid Bin Ahmed and Sons and Al Hassan Engineering Company.

Bidders also include Larsen and Toubro’s Oman subsidiary L & T (Oman), Simplex Infrastructure and Nagarjuna Construction International, all of India.

PEIE had appointed consultancy firm National Engineering Office to undertake the detailed design and construction supervision of the seventh phase of expansion. The consultant would design the land infrastructure for new industries, including the road network.