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The Indian Government is providing assistance for road construction work in neighbouring Nepal. This assistance is for building the Kulekhani – Kathmandu road section, which will be widened and upgraded with an asphalt surface. The road will be widened to 7.5m and the work is being carried out by Indian Contractor Golden Goods. Meanwhile asphalt surfacing work is has now been completed on Nepal’s Hetauda-Bhimphedi-Kulekhani-Pharphing-Chaimale road Section. Surfacing work is in hand on the remaining 21km sec

A joint venture formed by SNC Lavalin and Cintra Infrastructure will handle the contract to extend Highway 407 in Canada. This US$974.4 million (C$1 billion) deal was awarded by the authorities in Ontario to a joint-venture called the 407 East Development Group General Partnership and is a partnership between Spanish firm Cintra (a subsidiary of Ferrovial) and Canadian company SNC-Lavalin of Canada. The partnership will build, design and maintain Phase 1 of the new Highway 407 East. The construction work is

Qatar plans to spend some US$20 billion on building new roads over a five year period. The country’s infrastructure plans also include $11 billion of investment in a new airport and a $1 billion connection from the new airport to mega projects in Doha's northern region, as well as a new deepwater seaport and a new rail network.

South Korean firm Hyundai Engineering and Construction looks to have won the deal to build a massive causeway project in Kuwait. The firm offered a bid of US$2.6 billion. The causeway will be named after the late emir Shaikh Jaber al-Ahmad al Sabah. This 25km causeway will connect Kuwait’s northern Subbiya area with Kuwait City.

An impressive budget worth US$576 million has been set in Saudi Arabia for contracts to build 850km of new road and bridges. The budget was announced by the Transport Ministry of Saudi Arabia and the plan includes new roads in Baha and a deal to build the Haqv-Raith-Jella Al-Hayya road. Abdullah Al-Khodary's Sons will build the Najran-Sharourah-Wadia road while Abdul Aali Al-Ajmi will build the Jeddah-Jazan Road. Al Oyuni Investment & Contracting will build 95km of roads at Jizan while Omair Trading & Contr

Talks are now underway again for the US$3 billion Bahrain-Qatar Causeway project, which was delayed largely due to the financial crisis. Work on the 40km causeway project, which is intended to feature both road and rail connections, stopped in June of this year. The project is being handled by a consortium headed by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company (QDREIC) and French firm Vinci Construction. Under the original plan the road links were due to be completed by 2013 and the rail connections by 2015,

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport plans to announce the winner of the US$2.7 billion Mafraq-Ghweifat highway project in the fourth quarter of this year. The 327km highway will connect Saudi Arabia and the UAE and this project will be the first transport public-private partnership (PPP) project in the region. Bidders include China Communications Construction Company, Austrian firm Strabag and Australian company Macquarie. Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport says that the project is still undergoing final a

Construction work is now going ahead on the Suhodol-Tarcin section of Bosnia’s Corridor Vc highway. The Bosnian Government and highway company Autoceste FBiH Mostar signed a contract with Turkish company Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret for this section of the Corridor Vc highway. The deal is worth €115.2 million and will be for construction of a total of 5km of the motorway. The work is expected to take 28 months to complete. However a consortium of five construction companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina is

South Korean contractor Hyundai Engineering currently looks set to win a US$1 billion package of works for the Lusail Expressway project in Qatar. This deal will be for the first section of the highway and at present, seven international contractors are bidding for the project. The project is being handled by Qatari public works authority Ashghal. It has been reported that the deal will be finalised at the close of June 2012.

FCC Construccion Costa Rica has started expansion works on the Canas - Liberia stretch of the country’s Interamericana Norte motorway. The work includes increasing the number of lanes on the road to four and the creation of a bicycle lane. The US$96million project is being funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (BID).

Chile public authorities have presented an amended version of the Chacao bridge project, that will link Chiloe island with the mainland. Works for the 2.6km bridge will be assigned through a public competition and will cost up to US$ 740million, over US$ 200million less that the initial project presented by Puente Chiloe. The tender will be launched by the end of 2012 and should be assigned in 2013. The project is due for completion by 2019.

India’s horrific death toll on its roads presents a major threat to the country’s fast economic development. Estimates from the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) suggest that some 130,000 people die on the roads/year, at an average of around 14 deaths/hour. Under-reporting of accidents is thought to be endemic and the figures available exclude the 1.6 million serious injuries that have been estimated by the IRTE. Close to 146 million traffic violations/day occur in the country according to the IRTE

Work is now underway in Bangladesh on the country's new Dhaka Elevated Expressway. The construction work is being carried out by Italian-Thai Development and the project is expected to help address Dhaka's chronic traffic congestion issues. The project is costing US$1.2 billion and the 26km route will carry the expressway through Dhaka, including Kamalapur, Golapbag, Tejgaon, Kuril and Banani.

A report by the Spanish Association of Turnpikes, Tunnels, Bridges and Other Toll Road Concessionaire Companies (Aseta) claims the installation of toll booths on motorways would yield the Spanish government a minimum of US$ 10.25billion annually. Those whom the vehicle is a work tool or who do not have an alternative transport method would qualify for a discount. The government is also considering not charging drivers who motorways at night. Furthermore, drivers of trucks weighing more than 3.5tonnes are ad

Work on six major road construction contracts will commence in Oman shortly with projects worth a total of US$344.2 million. The deals were signed by the country's Transport and Communications Ministry. Desert Line Company will build the second phase of the ongoing Nizwa-Ibri dual carriageway project and also has a deal for the design and construction of a road linking Maskan and Muqniyat in the Wilayat of Ibri. Khalid bin Ahmed & Sons is to build the Wadi Mistil road in the Al Batinah region, while a partn

Professional drivers run a high risk of back injury and hearing impairment due to bad road quality, a report by Swedish consulting firm Vectura has shown. Vectura has measured vibration on roads in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Scotland as part of the EU project Roadex, and found that many professional drivers were exposed to an unacceptably high level of vibration caused by uneven road surfaces. Bad road quality also increased the risk of slipping accidents, the report showed.

Road safety is again hitting the headlines worldwide, with new data showing accident reductions being achieved as well as highlighting areas for improvement. Several European nations showed major safety improvements. In Spain, the Home Affairs Office has published encouraging information revealing that the number of fatalities from car accidents fell in 13 out of the country's 17 autonomous regions during 2010. La Rioja region reported a drop of 47%, the best improvement in Spain, while the regions of Astur

The Ministry of Public Works and Transport of Cambodia (MPWTC) said it expected the completion of a US$27million upgrade of Road No9, linking the districts of Phin and Outhoumphone, by March 2015. The forecast comes after the MPWTC awarded a civil work contract to a Japan-based joint venture between Obayashi and Obayashi Road. The ministry will utilise a grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to finance the project.

Simplex Infrastructures, the Indian construction firm, has emerged as the low bidder for the third phase deal for Oman's Batinah Expressway. The firm submitted a US$ 301.12million (OMR 301.12million) bid for the work. Some 16 firms are bidding for the deal, which involves building 34km of the 265km road. The second lowest bid of US$322million (OMR 124.4million) was submitted by both Turkey's Makyol Gulf and Oman Roads Engineering. The fourth and fifth packages for the Batinah Expressway project have also be

Discussions are now underway on a new highway to connect Turkey with Romania. A major stretch of this new highway will run through Bulgaria, which will provide a much-needed link in the country as it has insufficient express road infrastructure at present. The Bulgarian section of the highway would run from Ruse to Svilengrad. The political leaders of Bulgaria and Turkey, as well as Qatar, have been in discussions over the proposed project