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The Department of Transportation is seeking an increase in project cost for the New Cebu International Container Port to P10.45 billion from the original P9.962 billion
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DOTr is also requesting an extension of the loan validity and implementation of the project located in Consolacion, Cebu
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Dolores Molintas, OIC regional director of National Economic and Development Authority Region VII, said the cost increase will plug the deficit arising from foreign exchange differential and provide additional fund for land acquisition and compensation, social and environmental monitoring and management
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is seeking an increase in project cost for the New Cebu International Container Port (NCICP) to P10.45 billion from the original P9.962 billion, according to an official of the National Economic and Development Authority in Region VII.
In a presentation at the PortCalls Visayas Shipping Conference on March 2 in Cebu City, Dolores Molintas, officer-in-charge regional director of NEDA Region VII, said the increase in cost, submitted to the NEDA-Investment Coordination Committee, “will finance the deficit due to foreign exchange differential and additional fund needed for land acquisition and compensation, social and environmental monitoring and management.”
In addition, DOTr wants an extension of the loan validity and implementation, she said.
The NCICP project in Consolacion, Cebu was approved by the NEDA Board in 2016 and will be financed through a US$172.64-million loan agreement, signed in 2018 by the Philippine government and South Korea’s Export-Import Bank of Korea.
Groundwork for the NCICP was to have started in August 2022, but this did not materialize. DOTr also conducted a bidding for the civil works in May and June 2022, but no awarding of the winning bidder has been announced by the DOTr either.
NCICP will include a berthing facility with a 500-meter-long quay wall that can simultaneously accommodate two 2,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit vessels; operating facilities and structures for containers such as a freight station and an inspection shed; an access road and bridge; and a dredged waterway and turning basin.
The port will be built on a reclaimed 25-hectare area in Tayug, Consolacion, and equipped with four quay cranes. The port will be connected to the mainland by a 300-meter offshore bridge.
A new international terminal is seen as the long-term solution to the growing volumes handled at Cebu International Port, the current base port. It is seen not only to free up the base port but also to enhance the transport infrastructure system for the unimpeded flow of goods and services in the Visayas.
Several feasibility studies, the most recent one by KEXIM, suggest locating the new sea hub in Tayug, Consolacion, some 8 kilometers from the Cebu base port. – Roumina Pablo
