A joint venture between China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and Abu Dhabi-based Tristar Engineering & Construction, has secured a major contract worth AED10 billion ($2.7 billion) for the West Terminal substructure at Al Maktoum International airport, reported MEED.

The seven-level West Terminal is the second of three planned at the airport, stated the report. 

Announcing this, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) said the project award moves the first phase of the airport’s $35 billion expansion into its main build. 

Once ready, the 800,000-sq-m terminal will be able to handle 45 million passengers per annum, giving airlines, concessionaires and airport suppliers a dated pipeline of packages to bid for. It will connect to the airside through an automated people-mover system with 14 stations at full build-out. 

Earlier this year, DAEP had awarded an estimated $1.5 billion people-mover contract to a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corporation and Larsen & Toubro, covering four underground stations in the first phase. Other awards so far cover enabling works, the second runway, initial structural foundations and concourse substructures.

Packages still to come include the superstructure, the fourth concourse, the baggage-handling system, and the façade and roofing works, it added.