P339-B Manila Bay flood control PPP project eyed

CONGLOMERATE San Miguel Corp. has submitted a P338.8-billion public-private partnership (PPP) project to construct a sea barrier and flood control system along Manila Bay alongside an expressway between the National Capital Region and the province of Bataan.

The project also includes the reclamation of part of Manila Bay, SMC disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange Monday.

SMC submitted the PPP project proposal to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) through San Miguel Holdings Corp. and jointly with New San Jose Builders Inc.

The plan is to put up a coastal sea barrier and flood control system to “protect the Manila Bay coastline.”

In the past few years, SMC president Ramon S. Ang had been talking about the possibility of the conglomerate helping build a flood control plan for the metropolis.

The new infrastructure project is bigger than the $2.7-billion Laguna Lakeshore expressway and dike project—to date the biggest to be offered by the Aquino administration under the PPP framework.

SMC is also expected to bid for the dike project, which seeks to develop a 47-kilometer six-lane expressway with a 45-kilometer control dike and reclaim 700 hectares of land. It is envisioned to ease traffic flow and mitigate flooding in the western coastal communities along the Laguna Lake.