Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) has received bids from six groups for the contract to build the new midfield terminal building at Abu Dhabi International airport.

The six groups that submitted tenders for the project are:

• Al-Habtoor Leighton (local/Australia)/Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East) (South Africa)/Hochtief (Germany)
• Bechtel Corporation (US)/Al-Jaber Group (local)/Enka (Turkey)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)/Kumho Engineering & Construction (South Korea)/ China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)/ Al-Shafar General Contracting Company (local)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)/National Projects Construction (local)/ Joannou & Paraskevaides (Cyprus)
• Samsung C&T (South Korea)/Six Construct Abu Dhabi (local/Belgium)/ Arabian Construction Company (ACC) (local/Lebanon)
• TAV (Turkey)/Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based)/Arabtec Construction (local)

Adac received bids in November after the tender had been repeatedly delayed. The terminal was originally due for completion in 2010 (MEED 15:8:11).

The midfield terminal will be built between the two existing runways at Abu Dhabi International airport. The total built-up area will be 630,000 square metres and it will also include a multi-storey car park. The terminal will include 27,000 sq m of retail and food and beverage outlets. It will also comprise 65 contact gates that will be able to accommodate Airbus A380 aircraft.

US-based Kohn Pederson Fox Associates designed the terminal building. The expected capacity for the new terminal will be between 27 million and 30 million passengers each year. Construction work on the terminal project is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2012.

The current capacity at Abu Dhabi International airport is about 12 million passengers a year. With passenger traffic forecast to increase to 20 million passengers a year at the airport, the need for the midfield terminal is clear.