EXCLUSIVE: Kuwait to issue airport road tender in March

18 February 2018
Kuwait will have four active airport terminals by end of the year

Kuwait’s Public Works Ministry (MPW) expects to issue the tender for the contract to build and maintain major road and interchanges that will link Kuwait City with the under-construction Terminal 2 at the Kuwait International airport in March.

“There are ongoing discussions with the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) … but [the tender preparation] is in the final stage and it should be issued before end March,” a source familiar with the project told MEED.

The prequalified firms for the tender include:

  • Al-Ayuni (Saudi Arabia)
  • Cengiz Insaat (Turkey)
  • China Harbour Engineering (China)
  • China State Construction Engineering (China)
  • China Xingxing Group (China)
  • Combined Group Contracting (Kuwait, UAE)
  • Corsan Corviam Construction (Spain)
  • Consolidated Contractors Group (CCC) (Lebanon)
  • Galfar Engineering (Oman)
  • Italy P.S Itenira (Italy)
  • Kolin Insaat (Turkey)
  • Larsen & Toubro (India)
  • Limak Insaat (Turkey)
  • Makyol Insaat (Turkey)
  • Orascom Construction Industries (Egypt)
  • Sacyr (Spain)
  • Societa Italiana Per Condotte d’Acqua (Italy)
  • Strabag (Austria)
  • Teixeira Duarte Engenharia (Portugal)

MEED understands Japan-based Oriental Consultants, in partnership with the local consultancy firm Dar al-Dowailah, completed the design work for the road project in 2016.

The new road will extend from the 2nd Ring Road to the southern part of Terminal 2, which is currently under construction.

The $4.3bn Terminal 2 was expected to be completed in 2022, but the main contractor, Turkey’s Limak Construction, is understood to have agreed to deliver the project two years ahead of the original schedule. Terminal 2 has a design capacity of 25 million passengers annually and will replace the existing terminal, which has been operating beyond capacity for several years.

Kuwait is currently preparing for the opening of the temporary passenger terminal at Kuwait International airport. The standard operational readiness and airport transfer (Orat) process for the terminal, which has a design capacity to handle up to 4.5 million passengers, is underway.

A team comprising Turkey’s Cengiz Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticaret and the local First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Company won the KD52.8m ($174m) contract for the construction and maintenance of the temporary passenger terminal in August 2016.

Under the initial plan, the facility was to augment the capacity of the existing terminal until Terminal 2 becomes operational. However, MEED understands that Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is now considering converting the terminal into a permanent facility.

In addition to the existing terminal and the temporary passenger terminal, Jazeera Airways’ $46.3m dedicated terminal is expected to come online in the first half of 2018.

This means Kuwait International airport will be operating four terminals by end of the year, inclusive of the Sheikh Saad al-Abdallah terminal, a small business aviation terminal built in 2008, which Flydubai has been utilising for all Kuwait-bound flights since 2013.

Kuwait International processed 13.7 million passengers in 2017, a rise of 17.1 per cent over the figure reported in 2016.This volume of passenger traffic is nearly three times the design capacity of the existing main passenger terminal at the airport.

 

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