Four companies have submitted technical bids for the construction of an air navigation building at Bahrain airport.

The bidders are:

• Ansari Engineering (Bahrain)
• TransTech (Italy)
• Dheya Towfiqi Eng (Bahrain)
• MSCEB (Bahrain)

The new building will form part of wider plans to upgrade and expand the airport. Earlier in July, bids were submitted for the masterplan for the airport expansion.

In June, consultants submitted bids for project design and supervision consultancy services for the expansion project.

Bahrain airport authorities are eager to expand the facility to handle the increasing number of visitors to the airport. There was close to a 10 per cent increase in passenger numbers in 2012 compared with 2011. The airport recorded a total of 8,479,884 passengers last year.