The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will build a motorway connecting its capital Abu Dhabi with the Saudi Arabian border.

Costing $2.65bn, the project is expected to be the largest public-private partnership undertaken in the Middle East.

The Mafraq-Ghweifat road link will be 327kms long and is expected to be complete in 2016, according to thenational.com.

UAE-based Al Jaber Group is one of the three groups competing for the contract.

Al Jaber has teamed up with Besix, a joint venture between the local company Belhasa and Belgium’s Six Construct, and Australia’s Macquarie Capital Group for the project.