The contract for the temporary terminal designed to accommodate additional traffic in the intervening years prior to the completion of the planned $4.3bn Terminal 2 at Kuwait International Airport is likely to be awarded by June.

“The project has been transferred from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to the Al-Diwan al-Amiri, which has allocated a special budget for the project,” a source familiar with the project tells MEED.

Discussions are understood to be underway between DGCA and the Royal Amiri. “I think the low bidder will be awarded the contract, although the ongoing discussions seem to revolve around the technical offer,” the source tells MEED.

A joint venture of Turkey’s Cengiz Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticareta and local First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting (FKTC) submitted a low bid of KD52.8m ($174m) for the contract to build the new passenger support building in December 2015.

The Cengiz-FKTC offer was nearly 50 per cent lower than the second lowest bid submitted by a Spanish/Turkish-local joint venture comprising Corsan Corviam, Isolux and Kolin with Al-Toubad General Contracting priced at $258m.

The passenger support building will provide an additional capacity of up to 4.5 million passengers annually to support the existing terminal, Terminal 1, until the planned Terminal 2 becomes operational by 2020.

The tender for the passenger support building has specified that the facility is to become operational in 450 days, or about 15-18 months, from the date of contract signing. The building will be located next to the existing air cargo facilities, and roughly 1 kilometre away from Terminal 1.

The formal award of Terminal 2 has been delayed and the contract is understood to be officially still under review.