Kuwait approves $1.2bn of university contract awards

10 October 2011

New university campus will be located 20 kilometres west of Kuwait City

Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has approved the award of two construction contracts worth a total of $1.2bn to build faculty buildings at the new Sabah al-Salem university campus.

CTC approval is the final step before a formal contract award is made.

The CTC has approved the award of a KD185m ($675m) contract to the local Khalid Ali al-Kharafi & Brothers Construction Contracting Company in joint venture with China’s Metallurgical Construction Corporation to build the College of Science and Faculty Club at the new university campus, which will be located at Shadadiyah, 20 kilometres west of Kuwait City.

Kuwait construction awards
Year$bn
20062.5
20073.3
20083
20092.9
20106.6
Q1-Q3 20113.2
Source: MEED projects

The consortium submitted the low bid for the tender, about 10 per cent lower than the KD204m price submitted by the joint venture of Al-Hani Construction & Trading Company and China’s Sinohydro Corporation.

The development will comprise three primary elements – a men’s campus, a women’s campus and a faculty club. The separate male and female campuses will each involve about six structures linked by bridges. The faculty club will be a single building located between the male and female sections, which will also be connected by bridges.

The winning consortium will be in charge of building the main buildings and a vehicular tunnel. The scope of works includes landscaping and the provision of irrigation systems.

For the second project, the CTC has approved the award of a KD143.6m contract to consortium of the local Al-Hani Construction & Trading Company and China’s Sinohydro build the College of Business and the College of Women.

The price was marginally lower than the KD143.7m price submitted by the second-lowest bidding consortium, the local Al-Sager General Trading & Contracting with India’s Shapoorji Pallonji (MEED 15:7:11).

The approximate built-up floor area of the College of Women is 117,000 square metres, while the built-up area of the College of Business is 124,700 sq m.

The university has already awarded $1.4bn-worth of construction contracts for the new university campus development since the first faculty contract award was made in December last year. When completed, the Sabah al-Salem integrated campus will comprise more than 25 faculty buildings. It will include a 600-bed hospital, car parks with space for more than 32,000 vehicles, as well as dormitories, sports facilities and auditoriums.

In the first three quarters of 2011, $3.2bn-worth of construction and infrastructure contracts have been awarded in Kuwait. This is marginally less than the $3.4bn awarded for the same period in 2010, but double the $1.1bn-worth of construction and infrastructure awards for the first three quarters of 2009.

The Kuwait construction sector has a lot of potential for contractors if the state can push through all of the planned infrastructure projects. There is currently $25.1bn-worth of construction and infrastructure schemes under way, with a further $70.2bn-worth of construction projects in the pipeline. The government is planning to invest heavily in developing its infrastructure as the country’s population is expected to rise to 5.3 million by 2030, from the current 3.2 million.

 

 

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