France's Aeroports de Paris (AdP) is low bidder for the contract, offering options of BD 6.7 million ($17.6 million) and BD 9.1 million ($23.9 million). The UK's Jacobs Gibb submitted three prices ranging from BD 11.9 million-12.7 million ($31.3 million-33.4 million). The expansion, estimated to cost in excess of $300 million, will include an extension of the existing terminal building, resurfacing of the runway and new parking stands and aerobridges. Completion is due in 2010.

Revision of designs, which were originally submitted by seven companies in March 2005, follows an increase in passenger growth forecasts. 'When NACO [of the Netherlands] carried out the original estimate [in 2002], it forecast 7.5 million passengers a year by 2015,' says Abdulla Ahmed Mohammed, acting engineering and maintenance director at the Civil Aviation Authority, which shares client responsibility with the Works & Housing Ministry. 'But we have carried out our own revised forecasts which put the number at 11.5 million, so the expansion will be designed to cater for 12 million passengers.'

Awards are also pending on two other contracts on the project, for the masterplanning and project management (MEED 16:12:05).