SUBMISSION of bids for the P17.5 billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport project in southern Philippines has been moved to November, with the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) revising some of the conditions in the concession agreement.
Foremost of the revisions was the extension of the concession period to 25 years from 20 years.
“The bid submission date is set for November 15, 2013,” DOTC spokesperson Michael Arthur Sagcal said in a statement.
“We have been working hard to find the balance between government and private sector interests. This gives sufficient time for the bidders to finalize their proposals,” he added.
In a bid bulletin, DOTC undersecretary for legal affairs Perpetuo M. Lotilla, who is chairman of the pre-qualifications bids and awards committee, said the latest draft of the concession agreement will be the final draft subject to confirmation by the National Economic Development Authority.
Among the terms of the concession agreement are:
- The operation and maintenance of the airport apron (where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, or boarded) will be the concessionaire’s responsibility, including the right to derive revenue from it.
- The concession also allows flexibility in augmenting the capacity of the airport and sharing the liability for real property tax.
- The draft concession agreement also increases the “duration of the period for prohibiting competing airports from 10 years or when the passenger traffic at MCIA reaches 15 million passengers per annum, whichever is later, to 20 years or when the passenger traffic at MCIA reaches 20 million passengers for 3 years, whichever is later.”
The changes were prompted mainly by the results of one-on-one meetings held by the agency’s special bids and awards committee with bidders over the past few months.
Seven groups are vying for the project. These are MPIC-JGS Airport Consortium; AAA Airport Partners; Filinvest-CAI Consortium; SMC-Incheon Airport Consortium; First Philippine Airports Consortium; Premier Airport Group and GMR Infrastructure-Megawide Consortium.
The MCIA project entails the construction of a new passenger terminal capable of handling 8 million passengers a year, and the renovation and expansion of the existing terminal, which has a capacity of 4.5 million passengers a year.
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