The local/Indian Larsen & Toubro Partners Oman has submitted the low bid for a contract for the main building works for Duqm International airport.

Work on the project’s third phase involves the construction of the passenger and cargo terminals, air traffic control complex and related support facility buildings, ensuring the airport is fully functional and ready to use.

Oman’s Special Economic Zone Authority at Duqm (Sezad) had extended the bid deadline several times for the tender, which was opened on 22 May.

Larsen & Toubro’s bid of $94.4m was 11.2 per cent less than the second-lowest bid of $105.6m submitted by local Galfar Engineering & Contracting. Kuwait’s Mohammed Abdulmohsin al-Kharafii & Sons submitted the third-lowest bid of $113.7m.

The third phase of the airport development had been put on hold in the first quarter of 2012 for undisclosed reasons.

Construction of the first phase of the project, which covers the provision of utilities and road access to the airport, was completed by Oman-based Desert Line Projects. Work on package two, which covers the construction of the runway and installation of aircraft landing equipment, is being undertaken by China’s Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2014.

France’s ADPI is the project manager for the first two phases as well as the designer and project manager for the third phase.

The development of the airport forms part of a larger plan to turn the central eastern port town of Duqm into a major trade and transport hub, including establishing the country’s fourth-largest sea port and building a major refinery and petrochemicals complex.

In May, Kuwait’s KEO International Consultants submitted the low bid for the contract to provide consultancy services for a project to develop part of the port town of Duqm.

The contract entails planning, feasibility study, design services and preparation of tender documents for the development of the Northern and Central Industrial Zone at Duqm.

In March, Sezad extended to 6 April the deadline for bids for a contract to build its headquarters at the economic zone. The work will include civil, structural, mechanical and external works.

In November, National Engineering Services Pakistan and Partners (Nespak) won a consultancy contract for phase one of the Duqm project, which entails designing the road network and infrastructure of the town.