The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, a government agency, has shortlisted two bidders for a contract to build a runway, aircraft hangars and roads at Kuwait International airport.

The first shortlisted bidder is a group of Alghanim International General Trading & Contracting Company from Kuwait and Gulf Leighton from Australia. The group was the low bidder with an offer of KD140m ($485m) for the job back in August (MEED 11:8:09).

The other shortlisted group is Kuwait’s Mohammed Abdulmohsin al-Kharafi & Sons General Trading & Contracting with Turkey’s TAV. This group was the second-lowest bidder at KD167m.

The other bidders, which failed to make the Directorate General’s shortlist, are Kuwait’s Ahmadiah Contracting & Trading Company with France’s Bouygues at KD168m, Kuwait’s Green Line General Contracting Company with Turkey’s Yuksel at KD213m, Egypt-based Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman & Company) at KD226m, and Kuwait’s Combined Group Contracting Company with Dubai-based Al-Naboodah Contracting at KD259m.

The Kuwaiti authorities also plan to build a second terminal at the airport. They are in the final stages of selecting a consultant to design the terminal.

The new building will be linked to the airport’s existing terminal through a tunnel.

The terminal and runway are part of a wider plan to expand the airport, which could bring passenger capacity up to 20 million a year from its current capacity of six million.