Contractors have started to lay the groundwork ahead of construction of a new terminal building at Bahrain International Airport.

With an expected completion date of early 2019, the terminal is part of the airport's modernisation programme, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Transportation and Telecommunications Minister Kamal Ahmed confirmed to the GDN yesterday that enabling work was being done ahead of the terminal's construction.

"Work has already started and the contractor is on site now," he said.

"They are removing a lot of cables and pipes in the area where the new terminal will be built.

"So the first contractor is already on site and a new contractor will start, I think, within two weeks and this will also involve enabling work for a different area.

"The piling work will then begin - hopefully - in a month.

Ahmed was speaking on the sidelines of the opening of international aviation summit Routes Middle East and Africa (MEA) at the Gulf Hotel yesterday (May 31).

Bahrain Airport Company chief executive Mohamed Yousif Al Binfalah, who was also at the summit, explained that some tenders related to the modernisation programme had yet to be awarded.

"The airport modernisation programme consists of two phases - one is the new terminal building and we are in very advanced stages of that programme," he said.

"The design stage is complete and we are now in the tendering phase.

"I think between August and October all the programme packages will be awarded and we hope to have the main contractors on site by the end of October and beginning of November."

Bahrain International Airport currently serves nine million passengers a year, who fly with 51 airlines to 49 destinations.

However, as passenger numbers are expected to increase to between 14 and 16 million a year, the modernisation programme and new terminal will see the number of check-in counters and passenger loading bridges doubled, while retail and commercial outlets are also due to triple in size. - TradeArabia News Service