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The Department of Transportation hopes to award the civil works contract for the New Cebu International Container Port within the third quarter
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This is after the expected “go ahead” from project funder Export-Import Bank of Korea, also within the third quarter
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The Consolacion port will have a berthing facility with a 500-meter-long quay wall that can simultaneously accommodate two 2,000-TEU vessels
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) hopes to award the civil works contract for the New Cebu International Container Port (NCICP) within the third quarter.
This is after the expected “go ahead” from project funder Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), also within the third quarter, Transportation Undersecretary Elmer Sarmiento told reporters at the sidelines of the Blue Economy Annual Trade & Conference 2023 on September 6.
Sarmiento said the project has encountered delays in procurement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lowest bid was also higher than the agency cost estimate so that paperwork had to be redone and another approval from KEXIM and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board sought.
Groundwork for the NCICP was to have originally started in August 2022. The project’s civil works was bidded out in 2022, and won by a Korean firm.
NEDA Regional Development Council Region 7 officer-in-charge regional director Dolores Molintas at the PortCalls Visayas Shipping Conference in March said DOTr has submitted a request to the NEDA-Investment Coordination Committee to increase project cost by 13.69% to P10.45 billion and extend loan validity and implementation period.
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Sarmiento said KEXIM has approved the proposed changes and DOTr is now awaiting the special allotment release order.
The NCICP was approved by the NEDA Board in 2016. The Philippine government and South Korea’s KEXIM in 2018 signed a US$172.64-million loan agreement for the project; a counterpart funding of P1.28 billion will be financed by the Philippine government.
Sarmiento said the project has two approaches: civil works which will be funded by official development assistance from KEXIM, and the purchase of quay cranes that will be under public-private partnership.
NCICP will have 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.
It will be equipped with four quay cranes.
The port will be built on a 25-hectare reclaimed area in Tayug, Consolacion, Cebu.
It will be connected to the mainland by a 300-meter offshore bridge.
A new international terminal is seen as the long-term solution to growing volumes handled at Cebu International Port, Cebu’s base port.
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.
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