Megawide gets shot in the arm from GMR for Naia ambition

Megawide Construction Corp. said it would pursue the P109-billion rehabilitation of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) with the financial backing of longtime partner GMR Infrastructure of India.

Company officials said at a media briefing on Monday this would put to rest attacks against their bid to transform Naia—the country’s aging gateway that was already seeing worsening congestion even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck—into a world-class airport.

Megawide chair and CEO Edgar Saavedra said the participation of GMR as a 40-percent financial investor in the Naia project should satisfy the financial requirements of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Louie Ferrer, Megawide managing director for transport, said documents reflecting GMR’s participation in the project would be submitted within this week.

“The last requirement of Neda is the submission of financial requirements,” Ferrer said during the briefing.

He said this would eventually be raised before the Cabi­net committee for a decision on the mandated Swiss challenging bidding process.

“Hopefully we can wrap up the whole [bidding] by the first quarter of next year,” Ferrer said.

Among the Duterte administration’s priority infrastructure projects to be implemented by the private sector, the Naia project stalled anew after a group of tycoons that formed the Naia Consortium withdrew last July.

The project passed to Megawide, the next company that submitted a proposal, in accordance with the Build Operate Transfer Law.

Saavedra said they were prepared to undertake this project given their experience in operating and developing the Mactan Cebu International Airport and the construction of a brand-new passenger terminal at Clark International Airport.

Those projects, also ventures with GMR, were successfully delivered ahead of time, he said.

“We have the track record,” Saavedra said. “We took the challenge and said ‘yes’ to the government because we have been supporting the government in its infrastructure for the last seven years.”

He said the Department of Transportation and the Manila International Airport Authority also supported the project. INQ