Another question for Omagine: Is Omran, the Oman government's tourism development and investment arm as mentioned in the Mascat business news, and are they another dept. outside the MOT that is going to be involved in the decission making of our project. Thank you

Muscat -

Omran, the Oman government’s tourism development and investment arm, has officially awarded package two of the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre (OCEC) construction work to Carillion Alawi.

The agreement was signed by H E Nasser al Jashmi, chairman of Omran, and Andy Jones, CEO of Carillion Alawi, in an on-site ceremony, a press release said.

On the occasion, H E Jashmi said, “From the onset, Omran has put stringent, measured and technically and commercially comprehensive evaluation criteria to select contractors for its various developments across the nation. This is in line with Omran’s mandate to develop projects that contribute to the national economy, local communities and the country’s burgeoning hospitality sector.”

Jones said, “Carillion Alawi offers in-depth local expertise in terms of project delivery, safety, quality, value engineering and innovation and we have been successfully delivering major projects across the sultanate for more than 45 years. We believe that this experience has made Carillion Alawi uniquely qualified to undertake this strategic development and we look forward to working closely with Omran to see this package materialise in 20 months.”

Package two, worth RO78mn, includes a structured car park facility for 4,200 vehicles on three parking levels, exhibition halls of approximately 22,000sq m of leasable space, a concourse with a glazed curtain wall system, fully equipped with main production kitchen and three cafes, hospitality suites, administration areas, a central landscaped courtyard and two circulation nodes connecting the concourse to the car park. Furthermore, the package also covers ancillary buildings, namely the energy centre which serves as the district cooling plant for the entire precinct, in addition to a security screening facility, taxi amenity building, waste management building, landscape maintenance building and electrical substation facility.

According to an impact assessment study conducted by Booz & Co, OCEC will enable Oman to improve its brand, support promotion and tourism while providing various opportunities to SMEs in the areas of operations, services, retail, F&B and transport. On completion, the development is expected to attract 600,000 visitors per year, offer over 1,000 rooms, and provide 120,000sq m retail space.