The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has pre-qualified five bidders for its five regional airport projects worth P108.19 billion under the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program.
In a Sept 18 bid bulletin, DOTC named the five as GMR Infrastructure Ltd and Megawide Construction Corp consortium; the group of Filinvest Land Inc, Japan Airport Terminal Co Ltd and Sojitz Corp; Maya Consortium led by Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc; Philippine Airports Consortium of Metro Pacific Investments Corp; and the partnership of San Miguel Corp and Incheon International Airport Corp.
The development and operation and maintenance (O&M) of the regional airports will be bid out in two bundles: Bundle 1 includes the P20.26-billion Bacolod-Silay Airport Project and P30.40-billion Iloilo Airport Project; while Bundle 2 consists of the P40.57-billion Davao Airport Project, P14.62-billion Laguindingan Airport Project, and P2.34-billion New Bohol Airport Project.
The private partner will undertake the operation and maintenance of the airport as well as provide additional facilities and other necessary improvements to enhance passenger safety, security, access, passenger and cargo movement efficiency, and operational efficiency under a defined concession period.
Winning concessionaires for each bundle will handle the O&M of the airports for 30 years and will expand these facilities as most of the airports are operating beyond their design capacity. DOTC earlier said improvements in these airports are needed to enhance passenger safety and convenience as well as to ensure more efficient airport operations.
Opening of bids is scheduled for January 2016, while awarding of contracts will follow in February.
Aside from the airport projects, the government is currently bidding out nine other PPP projects. The 14 PPP projects undergoing procurement have a total indicative cost of P515.87 billion.
Third runway for NAIA
In another development, San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is offering to build for P50 billion a third runway and a new low-cost terminal that will help decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
The new runway will be 3,400 meters long and 45 meters wide — the same dimension as NAIA’s main runway — and will be built for about P5 billion, Ang said.
The low-cost terminal, which will be developed for P2 billion, will have 20 air bridges and can accommodate 50 take-offs and landings per hour, effectively doubling the capacity of the existing airport, the SMC executive said.
The terminal can serve 30 million passengers per year and may be connected to the South Luzon Expressway, whose toll road operator the conglomerate controls, he added.
The bulk of the project cost will be used to purchase right of way at P50,000 per square meter, Ang said.
Image courtesy of Ikunkl at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
