Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) has awarded a contract to build the new passenger terminal at Kuwait International airport to a joint venture of Turkey’s Limak Holding and the local Kharafi National, two weeks after the offers were submitted.

The consortium’s offer was for $4.3bn, nearly $250m lower than its original offer, made in November 2014 during the first round of bidding.

The project was retendered by the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) earlier this year, after it deemed the offers made at the time as too high. It also said the technical proposals were inadequate.

The swift award of the project is a marked departure for Kuwait, which is notorious among contractors for delaying major project awards.

The Limak/Kharafi joint venture outbid the Beijing-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation, which put in a price of $4.39bn, and UAE-based Arabtec, which submitted a bid of $5.29bn.

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.