A CONSORTIUM composed of the country’s biggest conglomerates is willing to reduce its proposed concession period for the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), but warned this would make the construction of a third runway unlikely.
“We are open to a shorter concession period, but we probably won’t have time to build a third runway,” Jose Emmanuel Reverente, spokesperson for the consortium, said in a press conference on Wednesday.
The NAIA consortium last month submitted an unsolicited proposal to the government for the P350-billion rehabilitation of the country’s main gateway. It proposed a concession period of 35 years.
The consortium is composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group, Inc., AEDC, Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings, Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
However, the consortium is going up against the tandem of Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure Ltd, which submitted a $3-billion, 18-year unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate, operate and maintain the NAIA.
Mr. Reverente believes the NAIA consortium has the advantage given they submitted the proposal first.
“Our proposal has the best solution for the problem we have right now,” he said.
AC Infrastructure President Jose Rene D. Almendras is hopeful the consortium will be able to receive the notice to proceed for their proposal to rehabilitate NAIA by yearend.
“If you look at BOT (build-operate-transfer) law and prescribed period for tendering Swiss challenge, you can get notice to proceed by December 2018,” Mr. Almendras said.
If an unsolicited proposal is approved by government, the project will undergo a Swiss challenge, wherein third parties can submit competing offers. The original proponent will be given the right to match these offers.
The NAIA consortium said it can increase passenger capacity to 47 million by 2020, and 65 million passengers by 2022, under phase 1 of its proposal.
Mr. Reverente said NAIA handled 42 million passengers in 2017, exceeding its capacity of 31 million by 35%.
The proposal also includes expanding airside facilities and creating a “people mover” such as a monorail or light rail system to connect passengers within the airport complex.
Links to the Light Rail Transit (LRT)-1 system, which would be extended to Cavite, and the Mega Manila Subway project would also be created.
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