Kuwait cancels airport infrastructure package

01 July 2010

The Directorate of Civil Aviation will now proceed with the construction of the third new runway

Kuwait has cancelled the estimated $485m tender for the infrastructure package at Kuwait International airport and is rescheduling the other packages.

The General Directorate of Civil Aviation received bids from contractors for the infrastructure package, which involves runway works, aircraft hangars and approach roads, in August last year. It has now told the bidders the tender is cancelled.

The local Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting Company with the UAE/Australian Al-Habtoor Leighton Group was the low bidder with a price of $485m (MEED 11:8:09).

“We are repackaging everything and we are still working on the [new] schedule,” says a source at Kuwait’s Directorate of Civil Aviation. “The cancellation was made by the Council of Ministers and instructed [us] to start with the third new runway. The third runway will be tendered within two to three months,” the source says.

The development of Kuwait airport initially consisted of five packages, including the infrastructure. Two, however, are now being rescheduled and the remaining two will each be divided into two further packages.

The contract for runway work will be divided into two parts. One will involve construction and the second will cover supplying equipment such as radars and communications.

In November last year, UK-based architectural firm Foster and Partners won the contract to design a second passenger terminal at the airport (MEED 30:11:09).

The planned $747m terminal will have capacity for 13 million passengers a year. It will bring the airport’s total capacity to almost 20 million passengers a year when it opens in November 2016.

The airport’s current passenger capacity is 6 million.

 

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