Batinah Expressway to get four mobile service stations
Times News Service
MUSCAT: In a first, four mobile service stations will be built within one month on the Batinah Expressway.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications and Oman Oil Marketing Company signed an agreement on Wednesday to establish temporary petrol stations on the Batinah Expressway.
“We are introducing another innovation by Oman Oil Marketing, mobile service stations on the Batinah Expressway,” David Kalife, Chief Executive Officer of Oman Oil Marketing Company, told Times of Oman.
“All four stations will be operational within a month. Usually, it takes six months to build a large service station; however, these mobile stations will take less than a month. We will do this temporarily before constructing the actual service station,” added Kalife.
“The main objective of this project is for our customers to be able to find fuel on the Batinah Expressway. With these mobile stations, we are bringing our fuel to customers,” Kalife said.
At the signing, Eng. Salim bin Mohammed Al Nuaimi, Undersecretary for the Ministry of Transport and Communications, said: “There will be four locations initially: two of the stations will be in Northern Batinah and the other two in Southern Batinah.”
“Two of these will be built before Rustaq, the third one in Sohar in the direction of Muscat, and the fourth in Liwa in the direction of Shinas,” added Al Nuwaimi.
The stations are distributed among several areas to cover most of the needs of road users along the route.
“This is a first-of-its-kind innovation in the country: a retail mobile service station. Regular service stations have underground tanks, while these stations will have portable tanks,” said Hussain Al Ishaqi, General Manager of Retail at Oman Oil Marketing Company. The mobile service stations will not only be fuel filling stations, but the company also plans to bring services which were initially not planned, such as products, food and other services.
“All the four stations will have a convenience store, a male and female prayer room, in addition to other utilities,” added Al Ishaqi.
According to the ministry of transport, the locations selected for the construction of these stations are characterised by their easy access to and from the expressway. These stations will operate round-the-clock and until the parties concerned complete the implementation and operation of the permanent and integrated stations.