MVP, SMC units in dead heat over Naia project

The concessionaire for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) stage 2 expressway will be known this week once the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) opens the financial bids of the two firms vying for the deal.

Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) and San Miguel Corp. subsidiary Optimal Infrastructure Development Corp. were the only two bidders that submitted technical and financial bids for the P13.61-billion project last week.

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center Executive Director Cosette Canilao said both have passed the government’s post-qualification checks of their respective technical proposals.

Whether one technical proposal is better than the other will not be taken into account, Canilao said.

“In accordance with the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) law, it’s just pass or fail. Once a bidder passes, the opening of its financial bid will be allowed,” Canilao said over the weekend.

The DPWH’s technical working group (TWG) has gone through the technical proposals of both firms, she said. Both proposals contain details of where the road will pass through, where the off-ramps will be located, and other features.

The TWG has not found any deficiency in either of the two technical bids, Canilao said.

MNTC currently manages the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx). Meanwhile, the San Miguel group, through various units, operate and manage the Metro Manila Skyway, the South Luzon Expressway and the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (Star toll).

Both groups are also building similar “connector roads” that would link the NLEx with Skyway, easing traffic in different parts of Metro Manila.

Conglomerate Ayala Corp. and Indian-owned M/S IL and FS Transportation Network were prequalified to bid for the project but both later on withdrew their respective proposals.

The Naia Expressway is the second phase of an existing project that will link Metro Manila Skyway, Manila’s airport complex and the Entertainment City—the country’s answer to Asian gaming centers like those in Macau and Singapore.

The first phase of the road project was completed by Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp., Skyway’s current concessionaire, through the construction of an off-ramp that leads to Naia Terminal 3.

Phase 2 of the project involves the construction of an overhead tollroad that will start from Sales Avenue and will pass through Andrews Avenue, Domestic Road, MIA (Manila International Airport) Road and end on Roxas Boulevard. The 5.2-kilometer road will have four lanes and five on-ramps and off-ramps.