NIA taps contractors for P5.8-B dam project

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) earlier this week signed up contractors to build the second phase of the Balog-Balog dam and related structures worth P5.8 billion.

NIA Administrator Ricardo Visaya said in a statement that the consortium of Quezon City-based ITP Construction Inc. and Guangxi Hydroelectric Construction Bureau Co. Ltd.—with main offices in Nanning City, China—were tapped for works that formed part of the Balog-Balog MultiPurpose Project— Phase II (BBMP II) which had its ceremonial groundbreaking in Tarlac last year.

When completed, the BBMP II is expected to provide irrigation water to 34,410 hectares of farms held by about 23,000 farmers.

Visaya said BBMP II was expected to increase the cropping intensity—the number of times a crop cycles within a year—in the beneficiary areas “from 24 percent to 200 percent, which will directly improve the crop production and farmers’ income.”

Also, the project has its hydropower component that can potentially generate 43.5 megawatts of electricity.

Visaya said the Balog-Balog dam, which can hold 560 million cubic meters (MCM) of water, can help mitigate flooding in low-lying areas and provide inland fish production to families residing there. Such opportunities are anticipated in at least 150 hectares of the 1,755-hectare reservoir area.

According to the bids and awards committee (BAC), the consortium was the only party that submitted a bid in time for the deadline last January.

Only one other party—the consortium of Green Asia Construction and Development Corp. and Guandong No. 2 Hydropower Engineering Co. Ltd. —came to submit a bid, but they did so past the deadline.

The BAC said there were other qualified bidders, which sent in their respective letters of withdrawal from the bidding. The committee maintained that the process proceeded in compliance to the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 9184 (Government Procurement Reform Act).—RONNEL W. DOMINGO