SALALAH: A dedicated recovery and rehabilitation centre planned for Thumrait is expected to be completed within 18 to 24 months, its developers told the Observer, outlining the first timeline for a project intended to form the foundation of a wider network of specialised recovery services across Oman.
The Thumrait facility will constitute the first phase of the Dhofar Recovery Center project and is expected to combine prevention, treatment and rehabilitation with longer-term support to help recovering patients reintegrate into their families, workplaces and communities.
“We are going to build it in Thumrait. We signed the agreement today and will start now,” Diva Unnikrishnan, a partner in the project, said in an exclusive interview.
“The plan is to complete it within 18 to 24 months.”
The timeline provides further details beyond those contained in the agreement announced on Sunday at the Social Investment and Sustainable Development Forum 2026 in Salalah.
Under the agreement, the Social Investment Centre, the Directorate General of Health Services in Dhofar and the Dhofar Recovery Centre will study the establishment of a specialised facility under a non-profit and sustainable social investment model.
Sakshi Kyla Chhapolia, co-founder and partner of the Dhofar Recovery Center, said Thumrait would serve as the starting point for a broader expansion plan.
“We are starting phase one with Thumrait, and it will be expanded into Salalah and multiple centres across Oman,” she said.
The developers envisage establishing a wider network across the Sultanate over the next three to five years before considering expansion into other GCC markets.
No details have yet been disclosed on the investment value, capacity or financing structure for the Thumrait phase.
Investor material for the project outlines a larger long-term vision, describing an integrated healthcare and human-development ecosystem with a proposed total investment of $130 million, a 300,000-square-metre campus and 13 specialised centres.
The proposed services would extend beyond addiction recovery to include mental health and psychiatry, physical and neurological rehabilitation, preventive healthcare, vocational reintegration, research and training.
However, the investor material identifies Salalah as the strategic location for the wider integrated development, while the developers told the Observer that Thumrait will constitute the first phase. The relationship between the Thumrait facility and the proposed larger Salalah development has yet to be clarified.
The developers said the first phase would be built around a continuum of care, beginning with prevention and early intervention, followed where necessary by treatment, rehabilitation and longer-term support.
They said the model would draw on mental health specialists, international expertise and data-based approaches. Some services are also intended to be offered free of charge, although eligibility and funding arrangements have yet to be announced.
The project is also being positioned as part of a broader effort in Oman to shift corporate social responsibility towards sustainable social investment.
Faisal bin Abdullah al Rawas, Chairman of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI), said that Sunday’s forum was the result of nearly two years of work since the chamber established its Social Investment Centre.
“Our aim is to move from social responsibility towards sustainable social investment with growing impact, and with an impact that can be measured in society,” he said.
Al Rawas said the Dhofar recovery project was among the most significant agreements announced at the forum.
“We aim to build a centre for addiction treatment in Dhofar in cooperation with our strategic partners,” he said.
The forum also saw the signing of an agreement with Development Bank aimed at linking social investment with development finance, alongside the launch of 'Mustafeed', a digital platform intended to connect community needs with projects, partners and social investors.
For the Thumrait project, the next test will be execution. The developers have identified a location and set an 18-to-24-month completion target, but key questions remain over the facility’s capacity, financing and its relationship with the proposed wider Salalah development.
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