Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has approved the award of an estimated KD173m ($617.5m) contract to the local Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting to build the Kuwait Cancer Centre in the Sabah area of Kuwait.

CTC approval is the last step before a formal contract award is made. Kuwait’s Health Ministry had received bids from nine groups on 25 January, with Alghanim submitting the third lowest price of KD173m.

A joint venture of the local Bayan National Trading Company and Turkey’s Ozge & Limak had submitted the low bid of KD151m. This was about 11 per cent lower than the KD169m price submitted by the second lowest bidder, the joint venture of Kuwaiti Manager Real Estate Projects Management Company and Spain’s Becsa.

The cancer centre will contain 600 beds and its main function will be for diagnosis to complement an existing hospital for cancer treatment.

The cancer centre is the second hospital project that Alghanim is set to be awarded in 2012. In January, the local contractor was awarded a KD31m contract to expand the Al-Razi hospital. The expansion project will add an additional 192 beds to the capacity of the existing hospital.

The projects are part of the Health Ministry’s plans to expand and upgrade the country’s healthcare infrastructure, as its population is expected to grow from 3.4 million currently to 5.4 million over the next two decades.

In April, the ministry awarded a KD98.1m contract to the local Associated Construction Company for the main construction package on the project to expand the Al-Amiri hospital.

The proposed extension to the Al-Amiri hospital will consist of a tower with up to 10 storeys, a basement level and a four-storey podium. The development will cover a total area of about 90,000 square metres and will contain 65 speciality clinics, a physiotherapy department, laboratories, a radiology department and a pharmacy. The extension will increase the capacity of the existing hospital by 360 beds.