Megawide-GMR leads bid for Clark airport deal

A Filipino-Indian consortium, which took the country’s largest conglomerates by surprise three years ago when it won the Mactan Cebu International Airport contract, is poised to bag another airport deal.

A venture between Megawide Construction Corp. and New Delhi-based GMR Infrastructure yesterday emerged as the front-runner in a public auction to build a new passenger terminal at the Clark International Airport.

The tandem bested four other groups, including state-owned entities from China, for the right to build a new facility in Clark airport that would expand its current capacity of four million passengers yearly to 12 million by 2020.

The Duterte administration, through the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, has committed to expand Clark airport, a major component of its plan to decongest Metro Manila and its main gateway, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. This also involves the establishment of a 106-kilometer railway system that would bridge the distance between Manila and Clark by 2022.

The Clark airport expansion project was split into two components: first the construction of the passenger terminal, funded by the government, and later, the bidding of the operations and maintenance contract for the facility to the private sector, which was targeted for award by March 2018.

The bidding yesterday covered the construction of a P12.55- billion passenger terminal, which should have a capacity of eight million passengers yearly.

The exercise was meant to determine which group could deliver the project at the least cost to government.

Megawide-GMR offered the lowest amount, which was P9.36 billion. This bested the offers of Tokwing Construction Corp. and China Machinery Engineering Corp. (P12.45 billion), China State Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd. (P12.298 billion), China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd. (P11.73 billion) and Sinohydro Corp. Ltd. (P10.68 billion).

“We got good competition in terms of the bids,” said Jake Bingcang, chair of the BCDA special bids and awards committee.

He said Megawide-GMR’s offer would be subject to review in the next few days. The awarding date was slated for Dec. 18, 2017. The BCDA hopes to hold the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new terminal on Dec. 20.

“Clark has immense potential and we share the government’s vision in anticipating [Clark airport’s] growth and future needs,” Louie Ferrer, Megawide-GMR consortium representative, said in an e-mail.

He said the construction contract would create more jobs at home.

“Infrastructure projects can have a positive, inclusive effect on the economy and we look forward to partnering with Filipino talents to deliver another world-class terminal,” Ferrer said.

Megawide and GMR earlier teamed up to win in 2014 the public-private partnership contract to operate and expand the international airport in Cebu, the country’s second busiest air gateway. The tandem outbid some of the country’s biggest groups such as San Miguel Corp., Ayala Corp., Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and JG Summit Holdings.