270-km Batinah Expressway opens

The expressway is expected to reduce travel time between Muscat and all governorates and wilayats en-route.

For safety, the expressway is equipped with metal, wire and concrete safety barriers, ground reflectors and traffic signboards.

Planners expect the massive road network to boost economy and tourism and become an engine for urban expansion in the future.

Salim bin Mohammed al Nuaimi, Under-secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communications for Transport, said that the expressway is one of the largest projects implemented by the ministry, and is designed in four lanes in each direction according to the latest standards and technical specifications.

Shaikh Hilal bin Said al Hajri, Governor of South Al Batinah, said that the opening of this road will be of vital importance to serve the citizens and will have a positive impact on economic, commercial and tourism.

He said that the presence of the logistics area Khazaen in South Al Batinah, which is the first dry port in the Sultanate, will give a comparative advantage between the port of Sohar and the logistics area. “Travelling on the current Batinah road has some challenges due to truck movement, which will now be relieved with the opening of the expressway,” said Joy Varghese, who travels twice a week to Suhar for his shipping business.

The ministry in a statement said the project has to pass through several challenges for six years since the start of the first package in April 2012. To maximise the benefit from this project, the ministry said it is working towards a time bound completion of the roads linking the expressway with the existing network.

The project was planned to be implemented in two phases with three sections and 11 packages.

The first six were main packages and the remaining five were of interchanges.