The firms are the UK’s Foster & Partners, two US companies - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Fentress Architects - a French firm and a German group.

The closing date for the submission of bids to the Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) is late November.

The terminal will be linked to the airport’s existing terminal through a tunnel and connected to an access road from the south.

The invitation to bid follows the failure of the DGCA to attract any bids for the design contract in the first quarter of 2007. At the time, all five prequalified consultants declined to bid after complaining they had not been given enough time to prepare (MEED 13:4:07).

The new terminal is part of a wider plan to expand the airport, which could bring passenger capacity up to 20 million a year from 6 million.