Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has approved the award of a KD265m ($940.7m) contract to the local Sayed Hamid Behbehani & Sons to build a 955-bed annex to Farwaniya Hospital.

CTC approval is the final step before a formal contract award is made. The committee approved the contract at a meeting on 19 March.

Sayed Hamid Behbehani & Sons had submitted the low bid to build the annex, which will offer 30 emergency rooms and 27 operating rooms. The project will also include the construction of laboratories, a pharmacy and car park for 1,500 vehicles. The client for the project is Kuwait’s Health Ministry.

The ministry is also reviewing bids for a 637-bed annex to the Al-Adan Hospital. Local Khalid Ali al-Kharafi & Brothers submitted the low bid of KD196.9m for the contract. Sayed Hamid Behbehani & Sons submitted the second-lowest bid of KD232m, while local Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting submitted the third-lowest price of KD252.3m.

Both projects are part of a plan to expand nine hospitals in Kuwait to improve the provision of public health services in the country. The expansions will add 5,000 beds to the current capacity of the state’s hospitals.

Several contracts have been awarded by the ministry and a few tenders are still being reviewed under the programme.

Earlier this month, Kuwait’s Amiri Diwan received bids for the retendered construction contract for the Jahra New Hospital expansion project. The low bid of KD364.97m was submitted by the local Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al-Kharafi & Sons, followed by the local Bayan National Trading Company with a price of KD376.2m. The local Combined Group Contracting submitted the third-lowest bid of KD412.3m.

The scheme entails the construction, furnishing and operational maintenance of a 1,157-bed hospital adjacent to the existing Jahra hospital in the Jahra governorate of Kuwait.

The first tender to be awarded as part of the hospital expansion programme was for the construction of a 240-bed expansion to the Al-Razi hospital. The local Alghanim International signed a $112m deal to perform the work in November 2012.

In May 2013, a joint venture led by Kuwait’s Associated Construction Company signed a $343m contract with the ministry to expand the Al-Amiri hospital, which will add 460 beds to the existing facility.

The following month, a joint venture of Metallurgical Corporation of China and the local Al-Tawbad General Trading and Contracting Company submitted a low bid of $184m for a deal to expand the Infectious Diseases Hospital in the Al-Asimah governorate.

In November, India’s Shapoorji Pallonji, along with local partner Al-Sager General Trading & Contracting Company, submitted the low bid for a contract to build an annex to Kuwait’s Al-Sabah hospital.

A tender issued in 2012 for the expansion of the Kuwait Cancer Control Centre has yet to be awarded, while a plan to expand the Ibn Sina hospital as part of the programme is still in the design phase.