Hill International, the project management company, has won a $108.5mn engineering consultancy contract for the expansion of the Muscat and Salalah International Airports, the Omani tender board announced on Thursday.

The US based international consultant won the contract for the multi-million dollar expansion work by beating out two other bidders in Dar Al Handasah and AECOM Middle East, an official at the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The Ministry tendered the work after deciding to cancel the contract of Cowi-Larsen after December 2012.

Hill International will now take over work from Cowi-Larsen and will work in close coordination with the various contracting firms involved in the expansion project, till the completion dates. There are several impediments to completing the airport development on time, with a number of contractors involved in implementing different packages.

The expansion of the airports is considered to be one of the biggest construction projects in the Sultanate, with total passenger handling capacities set to jump to 12mn and 2mn respectively. Expansion work is expected to be completed by 2014.

In order to speed up progress on the projects, the Ministry plans to launch a National Committee for Airport Development, which will also cover the development of four regional ‘green-field’ airports. The panel, which will follow up work on a daily basis, aims to improve the development programmes of the airports.