A joint venture of Turkey’s Cengiz Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticareta and local First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting (FKTC) has submitted a low bid of KD52.8m ($174m) for the contract to build the new passenger support building at the Kuwait International airport.

The Cengiz-FKTC offer is nearly 50 per cent lower than the second lowest bid submitted by a Spanish/Turkish-local joint venture comprising Corsan Corviam, Isolux and Kolin with Al-Toubad General Contracting priced at $258m. 

The groups that submitted their bids for the passenger support building include:

• Cengiz Insaat Sanayi Ve Ticareta (Turkey) / First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting (local): $174m
• Corsan Corviam Construction / Isolux / Kolin JV (Spain/Turkey) / Al-Toubad General Trading & Contracting Company (local): $258m
• Synohydro (China) / Al-Hani Construction & Trading Company (local): $276m
• Metallurgical Corporation of China (China) / Khaled Ali Al-Kharafi & Bros Construction Contracting Company (local): $278m
• Limak (Turkey) / Mohd Abdul Mohsen al-Kharafi & Sons (local): $291m
• China State Construction Engineering (China) / Bayan National Construction Contracting Company (local): $296m
• TAV (Turkey) / Consolidated Contractors Company (Athens-based): $417m
• Obermeyer (Germany) / Kuwait Arab Contractors (local): $600m

All offers include a five-year operation and maintenance (O&M) contract.

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 award for the Terminal 2 contract, however, has been delayed. Turkey’s Limak and local Kharafi National were named the lowest bidder, submitting an offer of $4.3bn, for the Terminal 2 project in August. However, the formal award of the project has been delayed following allegations of administrative and financial irregularities during the tendering and award process.

The tender for the passenger support building has specified that the facility is to become operational in 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.

Limak, along with local Mohd Abdul Mohsen al-Kharafi, submitted the fourth highest bid for the construction of the passenger support building.