A $195 million General Cargo Terminal and a liquid jetty will soon be built at the Omani port of Salalah to cater to the increase in bulk cargoes being handled at the port.

Oman's Ministry of Transport and Communications, which is overseeing the project, has received 19 bids from local and foreign developers on Monday, according to Oman Daily Observer.

The project involves the construction of 1,266-metre new quay wall built with concrete precast block and an 18-metre deep harbour basin in front of the cargo terminal.

The harbour basin will allow for major cargo ships to dock at Salalah, according to the report.

Berthing, mooring and navigation aids will be installed along with two kilometres of railing for cranes along the quay wall.

When completed, the General Cargo Terminal will have the capacity to accommodate 40 million tonnes of dry bulk commodities and five million tonnes of liquid products annually.

The liquid jetty will be able to handle product tankers and other carriers that service petrochemical projects at the nearby Salalah Free Zone.

Another part of the project is the gradual expansion of the port's container terminal with the development of Terminal 2.

The Terminal 2 is expected to add three deepwater berths totalling 1,350 metres to the existing 2,581-metre linear quay to boost the port's container handling capacity to 9 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU).

In the long term, the port plans to boost its container handling capacity to around 15 million TEUs annually.