By Krista A. M. Montealegre,
National Correspondent

TEN LOCAL and foreign entities have expressed interest in the new P12.55-billion Clark International Airport Terminal.

Bases Conversion and Development Authority President Vivencio B. Dizon told reporters last Friday local firms Megawide Construction Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. as well as South Korean company Posco were among those that bought bid documents for the engineering, procurement and construction of Clark International Airport facilities.

“Alam ko parang (I know about) 10 as of today,” Mr. Dizon said, noting that more companies are expected to buy bid documents until the October deadline.

“You can buy bid documents until bid submission in October. Dadami pa talaga ’yan (That will surely increase).”

The project will be awarded by the end of November with groundbreaking set in December 2017, Mr. Dizon said. Operation is expected to start on the first quarter of 2020.

Clark International Airport is located in the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone, around two to three hours away from Metro Manila. The new terminal will consist of an 82,600-square meter terminal building that can accommodate eight million passengers annually — almost twice the terminal’s current capacity of 4.2 million passengers.

Clark airport is being tapped by the government to be an alternative gateway in order to decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which accommodated over 39.5 million passengers in 2016, way above its capacity of 30.5 million.

The government will be in charge of building the facility, after which it will be turned over to the private sector for maintenance and operation.

“The O&M (operations and maintenance) contract is another competitive process. We’re doing everything in parallel. Once we finish the pre-bid conference, we’ll start the competitive process for the O&M,” Mr. Dizon said.

The pre-bid conference is scheduled on Tuesday, 9 a.m., at the Mind Museum in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.

A number of firms submitted unsolicited proposals to develop Clark before the government decided to undertake the development of the airport.

Among the companies that submitted proposals were Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Megawide Construction Corp. with its partner, Bangalore-based airport operator GMR Infrastructure Ltd., the Gotianun-led Filinvest group and JG Summit Holdings, Inc.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR