Oman’s housing ministry is set to award construction contracts for the second phase of a new RO500 million ($1.3 billion) city coming up in the northern Liwa province of the sultanate, said a report.

To be built near the Batinah highway and the railway project, the new residential city in Liwa will accommodate about 30,000 people, reported the Oman Observer.

The contracts being awarded in the second phase will be mainly infrastructure-related works such as digging, filling and levelling for the 8-km site, it said.

The ministry has already awarded the contracts worth RO25 million ($65 million) in the first phase which involves excavation work, engineering services, sewage canals and other facilities, the report stated.

The works also include construction and lighting of 100-km-long internal roads together with water crossings, said the report.

The new city in Liwa will include eight schools for different levels of education, an integrated health centre, 11 mosques with public halls and and shopping centres. It will also include space for business activities and green landscaping.