Clark expansion lures 7 firms

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Seven companies, including three Chinese firms, are expected to vie for the construction of the new terminal building at the Clark International Airport, possibly the first hybrid project under the Duterte administration.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) started yesterday the bidding process for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the new terminal building, giving the seven prospective investors who attended the prebidding conference yesterday until late October to purchase and submit their bid documents.

Although there were more than 30 firms that attended yesterday’s pre-bidding conference, there were so far only seven local and foreign companies that bought the bid documents.

These companies were the First Balfour Inc.-Datem Inc. joint venture; Megawide Construction Corp. in partnership with GMR Infrastructure Ltd.; Tokwing Construction Corp.; R-II Builders Inc.; Qingjian Group Co. Ltd.; China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd., and China State Construction Engineering Corp.Ltd (CSCEC).

BCDA president and CEO Vivencio B. Dizon told reporters on the sidelines of the prebidding conference that the bidding documents were “at par with global standards” given the stringent requirements that interested companies would have to hurdle.

According to BCDA senior vice president Joshua M. Bingcang, the qualification requirements included an experience in having designed and built an airport.

“So what we want to ensure here is that the quality of the new facility we are building in Clark is really at par with the best in the world. That’s why the International Finance Corp. of the World Bank is guiding us as to what the standards are globally,” Dizon said.

The P12.55-billion project, which is expected to be both completed and in operation in 2020, is just the first in a series of phases that will eventually increase the airport’s capacity by 80 million passengers a year.

The first phase, which is the project currently open for bidding, will increase passenger capacity by 8 million a year on top of the current annual capacity of 4.2 million passengers.

The would-be-expanded Clark International Airport, which has been seen by many as an alternative to the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport, will have a total annual capacity of 12.2 million passengers after the current project. Dizon said that the expansion has been planned by the government for more than two decades now.

Considered the first hybrid project under the Duterte administration, Dizon said the government would finance the construction of the expanded terminal and then pass the operations and maintenance (O&M) to the private sector.

Asked for specifics about the funding, Dizon said that it would be financed by the state-owned firm but hinted that “maybe we would be needing to borrow a little bit.”