Muscat: Omani nationals living on the Batinah coast have welcomed an increase in compensation by the government after their houses and land were appropriated in 2005 for the building of the coastal road.

Up until recently, the government had given the around 4,000 affected Omanis, 35,000 rials (Dh333,966), which they complained was not enough to recover their losses.

Residents are now going to receive an additional 15,000 rials.

Ahmad Al Balushi, a resident of Saham, told Gulf News he had waited six years to get compensation after his house was expropriated.

He hopes to use the money to build a new home instead of renting a flat.

Shaikh Saif Bin Mohammad Al Shabibi, Minister of Housing, said that instead of building new houses, as was the practice before, each affected resident would be granted a plot and financial compensation.

Juma Al Hamadi, a resident of Musanah, complained that when the government built new houses they did not take into consideration the social fabric of the areas they previously lived in, with different families in his village scattered across different areas.

In a statement to the Oman News Agency (ONA), Al Shabibi said that the affected cases, which opted to have an alternative house, have been sorted out. “These cases will receive a housing unit from the units that were completed at the first stage. The new mechanism will apply on the remaining 4,143 cases, which are still on the waiting list”, says Al Shabibi.

As of last year, 3,813 owners of affected houses have received plots and financial compensation.

As for the farms and land that have been affected by the project, he said that the Ministry has compensated 64 per cent of the total affected areas (29,702,000 square metres) during the past period. The length of the Batinah coastal road is estimated to be around 241km, with a four-lane dual carriageway starting from Naseem Garden of Barka province to Khatmat Malaha of Shinas province, on the border with the UAE.

The cost of the road is estimated to more than 400 million rials.

The construction of the road aims to develop the Batinah coast waterfront as well tourism and investment in Batinah.

The road is expected to be completed by 2016.