Kuwait has extended the tender closing date to 1 December for the contract to build a passenger support building at Kuwait International airport.

The previous closing date was 3 November. Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has prequalified 15 groups to bid for the deal. They are:

• China Communications Construction Company (China) / Kharafi National (local)
• Limak (Turkey) / Mohd Abdul Mohsen al-Kharafi & Sons (local)
• TAV (Turkey) / Bader al-Mulla & Bros (local)
• Larsen & Toubro (India) / Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based)
• Avic International Holding Corporation (China) / Al-Dar Engineering & Construction (local)
• Daewoo (South Korea) / Alghanim International (local)
• Obermeyer (Germany) / Arab Contractors (local)
• Metallurgical Corporation of China (China) / Khaled Ali al-Kharafi & Bros Construction Contracting Company (local)
• Sacyr+Tomaso de Oliviera (Portugal) / KCC Engineering & Contracting (local)
• China State Construction Engineering (China) / Bayan National Construction Contracting Company (local)
• Sinohydro (China) / Al-Hani Construction & Trading Company (local)
• Wehai International and Economic Technical Corporation (China) / Engineering Specialities Building General Contracting Company (local)
• Cengiz Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticareta (Turkey) / First General Trading & Contracting (local)
• Corsan Corviam Construction / Isolux (Spain) / Kolin (Turkey) / Al-Toubad General Trading & Contracting Company (local)
• Losberger RDS (France) / New Emirates Trading & Contracting Company (local)

The passenger support building will provide an additional capacity of up to 4.5 million passengers annually to support the existing terminal, Terminal 1, until Terminal 2 becomes operational by 2020. The tender specifies that the passenger support building is to become operational 450 days, or about 15-18 months, from the date of contract signing.

The building will be located next to the existing air cargo facilities, and roughly 1 kilometre away from Terminal 1.

In addition to a terminal, the scope of the tender includes a multi-storey car parking facility that can accommodate up to 1,600 cars, a pedestrian bridge between the car park and the passenger support building, as well as access roads and utilities.

The scope further includes a five-year operations and maintenance (O&M) contract starting from when a substantial segment of the new building has been completed.

For terminal 2, the joint venture of Turkey’s Limak and the local Kharafi National that won the $4.3bn contract to build the terminal began mobilising in October.

The new terminal is expected to be completed by 2020. When finished, it will more than double the airport’s passenger handling capacity to 13 million people a year.

The total investment to develop Kuwait International airport expected to reach $6bn. In addition to the new terminal and passenger support building, the funds will be spent on widening runways, enhancing control tower facilities and building new cargo facilities.