Kuwait’s Public Works Ministry (MPW) has awarded the design and consultancy contract for the development of the Second and Third Ring Roads and Damascus Street to a team of Turkey-based Proyapi and local company SSH, a source familiar with the project tells MEED.

The scheme covers 7 kilometres of roadways, five vehicular bridges and seven pedestrian bridges as well as related facilities.

The redevelopment of these roads is expected to help address traffic congestion issues in Kuwait, especially during peak hours.

In June, Public Works Minister Hossam al-Roumi asked Kuwait’s Central Authority for Public Tenders (CAPT) to cancel five road contracts.

The cancelled schemes are:

• Central section of regional road south (RA/242)
• Northern regional road from Al-Mutlaa Future city to future crossroads (RA/243)
• Damascus Street, Fifth Ring Road and King Faisal Abdulaziz road (RA/257)
• Northern regional road from crossroad No. 58 to 82 (RA/260)
• Northern regional road from crossroad No. 58 to Salmi border check post (RA/261)

CAPT completed its evaluation of the bids for each of the five projects between 2017-18.

Local firm Combined Group Contracting submitted the lowest bids for both RA/242 and RA/257, while a joint venture (JV) of Italy’s Itinera and local Yousef Yahya Almatrouk submitted the lowest bid for RA/243.

A JV of local contracting firms Abraaj Energy and Al-Ayuni Contracting submitted the lowest bids for RA/260 and RA/261, at KD73.8m and KD91.5m respectively.