Oman’s Transport & Communications Ministry has received bids from five contractors for a $111m infrastructure package on its Duqm airport project.

The ministry received bids for the infrastructure deal on 13 June. The successful contractor will build a runway and airfield infrastructure.

South Korea’s Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Company submitted the lowest bid with a price of OR42.9m ($111.4m). This was 8 per cent lower than the OR46.6m submitted by the second lowest bidder, India’s firm Larsen & Toubro.

The local Galfar Engineering & Contracting submitted the third lowest bid with a price of OR50.4m. Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) submitted a price of OR54.9m and the Turkish group Makyol put forward a bid of OR64.6m.

The contract was re-tendered after a number of changes were made to the designs.

Last December, nine groups submitted bids for the original second infrastructure package. The bids were put forward on 28 December, after the ministry had previously extended the deadline from 16 November (MEED 11:1:10).

Desert Line Projects won a previous infrastructure package for the airport scheme, worth $71m, in September 2008.

The Transport & Communications Ministry also awarded a OR3.4m consultancy contract to the local Ibn Khaldun Almadaen to supervise the construction of the airport earlier in 2010. Khaldun beat competition from Denmark’s Cowi & Partners to win the deal.

The airport project is part of a larger plan to improve the overall transport infrastructure at Duqm, including building a new dry dock and a ship-building facility in the city.