Mwasalat, a government-owned public transport company in Oman, yesterday (October 30) signed agreements with the Arab Engineering Services Company, to purchase 98 public transport buses, said a report.

Arab Engineering Services Company are the dealers for MAN in the sultanate.

The company said that the Route 2 (Wadi Kabir-Ruwi) and Route 4 (Wadi-Kabir-Muscat) will be extended to Al Bustan from the coming year, added the Oman Daily Observer report.

Of the 10 new services, new routes will be between Ruwi and Muscat International Airport and Burj al Sahwa and Muscat airport, apart from other routes connecting commercial centres and hospitals, it said.

Mwasalat Taxi should hopefully be launched by the year-end, including the airport services.

To be supplied over a period starting from December, the agreements provide for the supply of 98 buses during the next phase, including 33 buses for inter-city services and 65 buses for the city services starting from December this year, till August 2018.

The agreement, on behalf of Mawasalat, was signed by Ahmed bin Ali al Bulushi, CEO, includes the supply of 33 MAN buses, the first-of-its-kind in the Middle East with technical specifications such as adaptive cruise control, lane guard system and emergency brake assist to avoid accidents as much as possible.

These buses will be used to replace a number of old buses operating on the existing inter-city lines, apart from the new routes.

MAN will also supply 35 low-floor buses with a length of 12m and 40 seats, added the report.