Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) has shortlisted four of the 10 companies that submitted technical and commercial offers to design and build the airport’s planned new air traffic control centre building.

The 10 companies that submitted bids for the contract are:

• Al-Ali Engineering (Qatar)
• Aeroports de Paris Ingenierie (ADPI) (France)
• Ansari Engineering Services (Bahrain)
• Dheya Tawfiqi Engineering (Bahrain)
• Gulf House Engineering (Bahrain)
• Ismail Khonji Associates (Bahrain)
• Mazen al-Umran Consulting (Bahrain)
• Middle East Architects (Bahrain)
• Mott MacDonald (UK)
• Phoenix Engineering Services (Bahrain)

It is understood that BAC has opened both the technical and commercial offers and that it will shortly begin discussions with the four companies whose technical proposal met, or exceeded, the 50-point threshold set by BAC.

There is no specific deadline for the completion of the evaluation process, during which the shortlisted bidders are expected to provide BAC with more details of the breakdown of their pricing, among other clarifications.

Air traffic control centres house an airport’s navigational aid system (Navaids). Navaids provide airport staff with a visual representation of air traffic, allowing systematic and safe landing of aircraft and organised assignment of parking spaces, and other operational manoeuvres.

The selected design and build contractor will work with the Navaids sub-contractor.

The $1.1bn main construction contract for the expansion of Bahrain International airport was awarded to a team of Dubai’s Arabtec Construction and Turkey’s TAV in early 2016. Specialist systems such as passenger air bridges, baggage handling, moving walkways, and security packages have also been awarded.

Apart from the air traffic control centre facility, the packages still to be awarded include a maintenance, repair and operation (MRO) hangar, airport access roads, and the airport information and communication technology (ICT) system.