Kuwait’s Public Works Ministry has received bids for the contract to build the Education Ministry headquarters.

The low bidder is the local Mohammed Abdulmohsin al-Kharafi & Sons General Trading & Contracting with a price of KD77m ($269m).

The other bidders are all local. They are Al-Dar Engineering & Construction Company and Combined Group Contracting Company both at KD80m, Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting Company at KD85m, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Company at KD86m, Syed Hamid Behbehani & Sons KD88m, and Ahmadiah Contracting & Trading Company and Al-Hani Construction & Trading Company both at KD89m.

The contract involves the construction of an office building with 11 floors and a total built-up area of 110,000 square metres (MEED 17:9:09).

Construction is set to start in April 2010 and will be completed in April 2014.

The consultants are the local Gulf Consult with US-based Cambridge Seven Associates.

The Public Works Ministry has also invited prequalified companies to bid by 18 October for three contracts to build education centres.

The ministry prequalified 33 companies for the first centre, which will be built at Hawally.

For the centre at Al-Kabeer, it prequalified 19 companies, and for its Al-Siddiq centre, it prequalified nine firms.