Muscat - Two tenders for the design and construction of cargo, maintenance-repair-overhaul (MRO) and in-flight catering facilities at the new Muscat and Salalah airports were opened last week by the Tender Board on behalf of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
According to information on the Tender Board website, as many as six local and international companies have submitted offers for the design and construction of cargo and MRO facilities (MC12) contract.
They are: Indian engineering giant Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) Oman subsidiary L&T (Oman) LLC, Joannou and Paraskevaides (Oman) LLC, Bahwan Contracting Co, Consolidated Contractors Co, Carillion Alawi LLC and Supreme Infrastructure India Ltd.
Supreme Infrastructure is the lowest bidder at RO119.5mn, while the second lowest bidder is Joannou and Paraskevaides (Oman), at RO177.2mn.
Around 20 local and international companies had collected documents for the MC12 contract when the tender was floated in August 2012.
On other hand, the in-flight catering facilities (MC13) contract attracted bids from five companies, namely, Joannou and Paraskevaides (Oman), Galfar Engineering and Contracting, Bahwan Contracting, L&T (Oman) and Muhibbah Engineering (Malaysia) Bhd. L&T (Oman) is the lowest bidder for the contract with an offer amount of RO59.2mn.
The cargo complex at the new Muscat airport will have an annual capacity of 260,000 tonnes, while its in-flight catering capacity will be 24,000 meals per day. Salalah airport's cargo terminal will have the capacity to handle 100,000 tonnes per year.
Salim Nasser Said al Aufi, chief executive of the Public Authority for Civil Aviation, had said recently that the two contracts will be awarded very soon.
Aufi said that the total investment for the Muscat, Salalah airports, and the regional airports at Duqm, Ras al Hadd and Sohar will be about RO3bn.
"This is the overall investment for expansion and new airport projects," he said. "We are currently working on phase three contracts for the regional airports."
MC12 and MC13 are the only two contracts that are yet to be awarded from a list of 13 major packages that together account for the development of Muscat and Salalah airports.
© Muscat Daily 2013
