Muscat: The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT) held a press meeting to review its performances in 2022 and unveil plans for the current year, on Wednesday.
During the meeting, the ministry said eight strategic projects are underway and expected to be completed this year, noting that around 40 per cent of the development projects in the budget were attributed to the ministry.
The annual report of the ministry highlighted the major projects going on, and the upcoming ones. According to the ministry, the road expansion project (Rusail - Bidbid) is expected to be complete in the first quarter of the next year.
The ministry has conducted some proposals that might help alleviate the traffic congestion in the Governorate of Muscat by outlining three alternative tracks, which are Nakhl-Bidbid, Seeb-Bidbid, and Al-Amerat- Dima Wa Al Tayeen.
As the ministry has finalized the technical analysis submitted by five companies, a tender will be floated to the assigned company for the construction of (Dibba - Lima - Khasab) road before the end of March 2023.
The ministry is planning to revise a number of laws, including the Electronic Transactions Law and the Communications Regulatory Law during the current year, the ministry’s officials pointed out.
Speaking on the occasion, the officials said the ministry is planning to set land ports in the Empty Quarter and Buraimi governorate. The ministry is going to invite land port-related bids in the near future.
On the sidelines of the press briefing, the ministry launched the national cybersecurity industry drive, the new identity of the "Naql" platform concerned with issuing vehicle operating cards, licenses and permits for workers in land transport activities, and the launch of "Aber" App for taxi vehicles.
Tenders worth RO230 mn have been awarded this year, MTCIT officials said.
The ministry highlighted some key achievements the ports sector in 2022, saying that ports in Oman received 9800 ships, 5.2 million containers and 205,000 tourists in 2022.
In 2022, the ministry has attracted technology-based investments worth over RO 300 mn for the large-scale Green Data Centre, Semiconductor Company and Amazon Company.
Meanwhile, the ministry has recently launched mobile meters for taxis (Aber).
Regarding the public transport, buses in the Sultanate of Oman ferried more than 6.4 million passengers in Muscat governorate and routes heading to the various governorates.
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