Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (Gaca) has shortlisted four groups for the contract to build the new terminal 5 building at King Khalid International airport in Riyadh.

The client is currently evaluating technical proposals and is expected to award the contract within the next month, according to sources in Riyadh. Gaca received bids from contractors for the package in November last year.

The four shortlisted groups are:

• Al-Bawani (local)/Vinci Construction (France)
• Al-Mabani General Contracting Company/Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based) / Drake & Scull (UAE)
• Joannou & Paraskevaides (Overseas) (Cyprus)
• TAV (Turkey)/Al-Arrab Contracting Company (local)

MEED reported in November that the joint venture of Turkey’s TAV and the local Al-Arrab Contracting Company has submitted a low bid of SR1.099bn ($293m) for the deal, with the joint venture of Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), the local Al-Mabani General Contractors, and UAE-based Drake & Scull International submitting the second price of SR1.5bn

The new terminal 5 is part of Gaca’s significant expansion programme for King Khalid International, which will increase the airport’s annual capacity to about 24 million passengers from the current 14 million.

In July last year, the local Al-Mabani General Contractors was awarded an estimated SR219.5m ($58.5m) contract to build a new apron at the Riyadh airport. The work will involve the construction of an apron at terminal 3 and the currently unused terminal 4.

King Khalid International airport is located about 35 kilometres north of the capital.