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Oman’s revived Masirah sea bridge project plans to tap into wave energy, the country’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology revealed during a media briefing Wednesday.
In a series of tweets in Arabic, local news agency WAF Oman quoted Khamis Mohammed Al Shamakhi, Undersecretary of the Ministry for Transport as saying that the government has no plans to invest in the project, but a memorandum of understanding signed with a consortium of companies to invest in the project has been extended for a period of one year.
He said a study on the economic feasibility of the project will be presented at the end of that period with primary investment objective being to generate wave power.
The plan for the sea bridge was mooted in 2010 and an Omani-Korean joint venture worked on the feasibility study, initial design and financial plan in 2015. However, the plan was put on hold due to the hefty price tag of 500 million Omani rials ($1.3 billion) until it was revied in 2022.
In a separate announcement this week, Norwegian wave energy company Havcraft signed an agreement with UK consultancy Translucidus to provide wave energy power systems for Oman.
Other key announcements made during the briefing were:
• The Ministry is working on more than 30 pieces of legislation in the transportation sector and is coordinating with car dealerships to ensure electric vehicles constitute more than 79 percent of new vehicles by 2035.
• 40 percent of Oman’s development budget has been allotted to the Ministry’s projects.
• Tenders worth OMR 230 million ($598 million) were awarded in 2022.
• Contracts awarded under the periodic road maintenance program exceeded OMR 250 million.
• The Ministry attracted technical investments worth more than OMR 300 million ($780 million) in 2022.
• Digitisation saved more than OMR 100 million ($260 million) for the Ministry.
• The revenues of the maritime affairs sector increased by 21 percent
(Writing by Sowmya Sundar; Editing by Anoop Menon)
