The joint venture of Belgium’s Six Construct and the local Midmac Contracting Company has won the QR2.7bn ($740m) contract to build an extension to the passenger terminal at the New Doha International Airport (NDIA).

The 34-month contract is for the north node or phase 3a. It involves building a terminal extension, which will be a five-level structure with a total floor area of 127,000 square metres. The ground floor will accommodate transit passengers, the first floor is for departures, and the second for arrivals. The third and fourth levels will house a 100-room hotel.

The other bidders for the contract were Spain’s Obrascon Huarte Lain; South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company; and Beijing-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation (MEED 15:1:10).

The extension will connect to NDIA’s main passenger terminal, which is being built by the Sky Oryx consortium, which is comprised of Japan’s Taisei Corporation and Turkey’s TAV.

The first phase of the $11bn airport is scheduled to open in late 2011. It includes two runways and a 140,000 sq m airport terminal, with 24 aircraft gates and capacity to handle 12 million passengers a year.

The second phase will double the airport’s capacity to 24 million passengers, with the addition of about 80,000 sq m of space.

US-based Bechtel is the engineering, procurement and construction management contractor on the project.