Kuwait has selected a team comprising Turkey’s Cengiz Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticaret and its local agent First Kuwaiti General Contracting for the deal to build and maintain the temporary passenger support building at Kuwait International airport.

Sources close to the contract tell MEED the deal has been signed and a formal award is expected “very soon”.

The team, which was the low bidder for the project, with an offer of KD52.8m ($174m), submitted a performance bank guarantee in the first week of August.

The bank guarantee is understood to be the final hurdle before the contract is formally awarded.

The temporary passenger building has a design capacity of 4.5 million passengers a year. It will support the existing terminal, which has been operating beyond capacity, while construction of the recently awarded $4.3bn Terminal 2 is under way.

The tender calls for the building to become operational within 450 days following the signing of the contract.

A consultant earlier told MEED a 450-day construction period is feasible. “It’s going to be a steel structure…. We’ve participated in similar projects in other regions and 450 days is doable,” said the consultant.

The new passenger support building will be constructed on the northern side of the existing terminal.

The contract to build Terminal 2 was awarded in May to a team of Turkey’s Limak Holding and the local Kharafi National.