Kuwait airport bids to be rejected

09 February 2015

Ministry recommends bids for airport work to be rejected

Kuwait’s state news agency, KUNA, has reported that Kuwait’s public works ministry has recommended all bids for the building of the new terminal should be rejected.

Abdulaziz al-Ibrahim, Kuwait’s Minister for Electricity, Water and Public Works, said on 8 February that a technical committee in the ministry has called for bids to be rejected without providing any reason.

Although it has been reported in the local media that the ministry is unhappy as the lowest bid, which exceeds the estimate cost of the project by 39 per cent, did not meet technical requirements

In November a consortium of Kuwait’s Kharafi National and Turkish firm Limak Holding had submitted the lowest bids for the contract at $4.7bn.

The price was nearly $1bn lower than the second-lowest price of $5.6bn submitted by Beijing-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).

The prices that contractors submitted in early November were above the budget that Kuwait had given the terminal building project. In December 2014 MEED reported that Kuwait asked the groups that bid for the contract to propose value engineering options that will reduce the cost of the project.

The total investment in developing Kuwait International airport is expected to reach $6bn. In addition to the new terminal, an estimated $3bn will be spent on widening runways, enhancing control tower facilities and building new cargo facilities.

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