Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has approved the award of a KD37m ($123m) contract to a joint venture of the local Kharafi National and China State Construction Engineering Corporation for the construction of a central utilities plant at the Sabah al-Salem University.

The team submitted a low bid for the deal in March. Its price was less than 1 per cent lower than the price of KD37.2m submitted by the local/Egyptian Kuwait Arab Contractors Company. The other bidders were the local office of Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) at KD37.3m and the local Hani Construction Company at KD38.5m.

Kharafi National is already working on the university scheme. Last year, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education awarded a joint venture of China State Construction Engineering Corporation and Kharafi National a KD140m contract for building work.

That three-year deal involves the construction of 13 academic support buildings with a total built-up area of 213,000 square metres.