Kuwait’s Health Ministry has retendered the construction contract for the expansion of Jahra Hospital. The deadline for bids 25 March.

Local Burhan International Construction Company had submitted the low bid of $1.27bn for the contract, which entails construction, furnishing and operational maintenance of a 1,157-bed hospital adjacent to the existing Jahra hospital in the Jahra governorate of Kuwait. The contract was cancelled when the company failed to submit a performance bond. The contract has been retentered.

The project is part of a plan to expand nine hospitals in Kuwait to improve the provision of public health services in the country. The expansions will add 5,000 beds to the current capacity of the state’s hospitals.

Several contracts have been awarded by the ministry and a few tenders are still being reviewed under the programme.

The first tender to be awarded was for the construction of a 240-bed expansion to the Al-Razi hospital. The local Alghanim International signed a $112m deal to perform the work in November 2012.

In May 2013, a joint venture led by Kuwait’s Associated Construction Company signed a $343m contract with the ministry to expand the Al-Amiri hospital, which will add 460 beds to the existing facility.

The following month, a joint venture of Metallurgical Corporation of China and the local Al-Tawbad General Trading and Contracting Company submitted a low bid of $184m for a deal to expand the Infectious Diseases Hospital in the Al-Asimah governorate.

In November, India’s Shapoorji Pallonji, along with local partner Al-Sager General Trading & Contracting Company, submitted the low bid for a contract to build an annex to Kuwait’s Al-Sabah hospital. The Health Ministry received a total of nine bids for the contract.

The Health Ministry also recently extended the deadline for bids to 29 January for the expansion of Farwaniya hospital and Al-Adan hospital.

A tender issued in 2012 for the expansion of the Kuwait Cancer Control Centre has yet to be awarded, while a plan to expand the Ibn Sina hospital as part of the programme is still in the design phase.