Qatar’s Al Muhannadi for Roads, Trading and Contracting has signed a contract worth an estimated $147 million to rehabilitate Syria’s Al Tanf to Al Busairi road and build a second carriageway, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Monday.
The project also covers rehabilitation of the Al Sabaa Biyar link toward Al Busairi. The works total about 215 kilometers and are scheduled to take 900 days.
The contract was signed in Damascus on October 26 by Moaz Najjar, director general of the General Establishment for Road Communications at Syria’s Ministry of Transport, and Abdullah Al Zattam, chief executive of Al Muhannadi. Transport Minister Yarub Badr and Finance Minister Mohammed Yisr Barnieh attended.
Badr said the road forms part of a corridor linking Iraq with the Syrian Mediterranean ports of Baniyas, Tartus and Latakia, and would support regional trade and transit traffic.
It is the second contract under a plan to rehabilitate Syria’s central road network, after a deal for the Nassib to Damascus road with Kuwait’s Combined Group, Badr said. The plan includes six road contracts, followed by three contracts with international consultancies to supervise the works.
Barnieh said this year’s investment budget allocated $193 million to road projects. The proposed budget for next year includes $450 million for central road projects and $200 million for railway projects, he said.
Najjar said his agency was ready to start the project, but mines on both sides of the road pose a challenge to beginning work.
