DOTC amends bid schedule for ports deals

POTENTIAL bidders for the Davao Sasa Port modernization and regional airports development, operation and maintenance projects have until late July to submit qualification documents.

The Department of Transportation and Communications said in separate bid bulletins that the deadline for submission of documents for the Davao Sasa project had been moved to July 29, 2015 from June 30. For the provincial airports deal, the DOTC set the deadline on July 27, 2015.

The DOTC announced last month that the Davao Sasa project lured at least five groups. These are San Miguel Corp., Davao International Container Terminals Inc., Spain’s Óbrascon Huarte Lain (OHL) S.A., Bolloré S.A. of France and Singapore’s Portek International.

The DOTC’s bid invitation showed that the modernization project covered the improvement of the existing port and the establishment of “dedicated” container handling facilities with initial design capacity of 1,900 container ground slots up to a minimum of 2,700 container ground slots.

For the airport deal, the government is auctioning contracts covering the operations, maintenance and expansion of the Bacolod-Silay, Iloilo, Davao Laguindingan and New Bohol air gateways.

Interested bidders include San Miguel Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures, the consortium of Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure, another consortium led by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings, Japan’s Sojitz and Philippine Skylanders.