Kuwait’s Public Works Ministry (MPW) expects to award a team of Turkey’s Makyol and local Contec United General Contracting, which submitted the second lowest bid for the contract to construct roads at crossroads within the South Al-Mutlaa City, soon.

According to a source familiar with the transaction, the Turkish/local team is now in the process of preparing and submitting required documents including the performance bond.

The team offered $361m for the contract, which is higher than the $314m offer made by a team comprising Metallurgical Corporation of China and local Ali Al-Kharafi & Brothers Construction.

The Chinese/local team, however, was unable to raise the performance bond, according to a source at MPW.

The road contract was tendered last year.

One contractor, who is not involved in the tender, told MEED it has become increasingly more challenging for contractors to raise the required performance bond from Kuwaiti banks since the start of 2017.

This has resulted in an exceptionally long delay in project awards as well as project mobilisation this year compared to previous years.