Megawide-GMR bags Clark Int’l Airport expansion project

A consortium led by Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure bagged a contract to build a new passenger terminal in the Clark International Airport in Pampanga province.

This was announced on Tuesday by Jake Bingcang, chair of the BCDA special bids and awards committee.

The decision came days after the BCDA, which is implementing the expansion of Clark Airport, opened financial offers from five competing groups, which included large state-owned companies from China.

Megawide-GMR offered to build the facility at the least cost to government, which had set the ceiling price for the new terminal that could accommodate eight million passengers per year at P12.55 billion.

Megawide-GMR offered P9.36 billion, about 25 percent below the ceiling price.

This was lower than 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).

The new passenger terminal is anticipated to increase capacity at Clark Airport, which is significantly underutilized, from four million passengers per year to 12 million passengers annually by 2020.

The BCDA would later invite the private sector to operate and maintain (O&M) Clark Airport. Bingcang earlier said the BCDA hopes to award the O&M contract for Clark Airport by March 2018.

The Duterte administration has committed to expand Clark Airport, which is being positioned as an alternative to the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) in Manila.

To help address this, the government said it would pursue a 106-kilometer train line that would link Manila and Clark by 2022. The train project, to be funded by loans from the Japanese government, would cost over P300 billion.

Megawide-GMR is the same group that is expanding and operating the Mactan Cebu International Airport, the country’s second-busiest air gateway after Naia. This was among the successful public private partnership deals launched in the previous administration.              /kga