First light industries park in Oman makes progress in construction

Muscat: Oman’s first integrated light industries park, Sandan, has achieved progress in building the facility, which is spanning over an area of 250,000 square metres near Mabela.
Talking to Times of Oman, Said Nasser Al Rashdi, chief executive officer of Sandan Development, said that structure of two to three buildings have been completed, out of 16 planned buildings. The project, which will cater to automobile and building material businesses, will open for customers by the third quarter of 2018.
OMR100 million project
The purpose built shops are mainly for automobile and building material industries and the total cost of the project is estimated at OMR100 million. “The automobile units include used car showrooms, spare parts units, garages, auto electricians, tyre vendors and accessory units,” said Al Rashdi. Similarly, construction related units include sanitaryware shops, ceramic tile shops and carpentry and aluminium workshops.
As many as 4,500 units, including studio apartments, will be opened when the whole project is ready. Further, there will be other facilities like banks, money exchanges and restaurants.
The average area of a workshop is 76 square metres, showrooms are of 96 square metres each and studio apartments are 50 square metres area each.
The front line of the project is planned to host 50 auto showrooms with a capacity of over 1,000 vehicles — supported by workshops necessary for the industry. There will be more than 1,200 workshops offering repair, spare parts and other automotive requirements. The next division of the park will host building material showrooms, workshops for carpenters, blacksmiths, and aluminium and ceramic shops. The third division will host 400 office units for companies, which are based in the park. The project will include 1,800 residential units for workers as more than 10,000 people are expected to live within the area. It will also feature facilities such as hypermarkets, restaurants, hospitals and mosques.
Taking further steps to make sure the work progress goes smoothly, Sandan built a plant for ready-mix concrete inside the project location with a capacity of 500 cubic metres a day. The total number of workers engaged now at the project is 700 people and is expected to increase to 2,100 in the near future.