For the second month in a row Kuwait has dominated the contract awards.

In August, the biggest contract award was for Kuwait’s multibillion-dollar airport contract. The awards, which went to the low bidder, was made just two weeks after the deadline for bids submission.

• Low bidder is a joint venture of Limak Holding and the local Kharafi National
• Consortium’s new bid of $4.3bn is $250m lower than its original price

Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) awarded the contract to build the new passenger terminal at Kuwait International airport to a joint venture of Turkey’s Limak Holding and the local Kharafi National.

The consortium’s offer was for $4.3bn, nearly $250m lower than its original offer, made in November 2014 during the first round of bidding.

The project was retendered by the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) earlier this year, after it deemed the offers made at the time were too high. It also said the technical proposals were inadequate.

The swift award of the project is a marked departure for Kuwait, which is notorious among contractors for delaying major project awards.

The Limak/Kharafi joint venture outbid the Beijing-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation, which put in a price of $4.39bn, and UAE-based Arabtec, which submitted a bid of $5.29bn.

The total investment in developing Kuwait International airport is expected to reach $6bn. In addition to the new terminal, an estimated $3bn will be spent on widening runways, enhancing control tower facilities and building new cargo facilities.

The second-bigest project award by value was in Egypt, for the Abu Rawash wastewater project.

• Local/international consortium signs contract to develop public-private partnership wastewater project
• Work will involve expanding capacity of existing plant and building secondary treatment stage
• Total revenue for concession period expected to reach $2.7bn

Egypt’s PPP Central Unit signed the contract with a consortium of the local Orascom Construction and International Consultants for Agency & Trade (Icat), Spain’s Aqualia, and France’s Veolia to build the Abu Rawash wastewater treatment plant expansion.

The scheme is being developed as a public-private partnership (PPP) project.

According to Aqualia, the build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract will involve an initial investment of more than €500m ($561m), with expected total revenue for the 25-year concession period reaching €2.4bn.

The agreement will cover the design, financing and expansion of the existing Abu Rawash plant from 1.2 million cubic metres a day (cm/d)  to 1.6 million cm/d, as well as the construction of an advance secondary treatment stage. The project will also include the operation and maintenance of the whole plant.

The scheme has faced several delays since it was first launched. The PPP Central Unit initially produced a list of prequalified companies allowed to bid to build the plant in early 2011, but due to delays resulting from the political uprisings and changes in specifications, the project owner decided to restart the process earlier this year.