Gov’t to award P10-B Mactan, Cebu airport project in Sept

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration is set to award the P10-billion contract for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport project in September to cope with the growing number of tourists using the gateway to enter the country.

The Department of Transportation and Communications and Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority has invited prospective bidders to apply to pre-qualify and bid for the construction of a new passenger terminal; rehabilitation and expansion of the existing terminal; operation, maintenance and management of the terminals.

The project involves the construction of the new passenger terminal, apron for the new passenger terminal, rehabilitation and expansion of the existing terminal, installation of all the required equipment and other associated facilities, installation of the required information technology and other equipment commensurate with the operations as well as operation and maintenance of both the new and existing passenger terminals.

The pre-qualification, bids, and awards committee (PBAC) is set to hold a pre-qualification conference on Jan. 28 and prospective bidders are required to submit their qualification documents on or before Feb. 28.

The PBAC would then require pre-qualified bidders to submit both technical and financial proposals, a bid security, as well as other supporting documents on Aug. 2 that would be evaluated by the committee.

The PBAC would first review the bidders’ technical proposals afterwhich the committee would then evaluate the financial proposals of bidders whose technical proposals were rated passed.

The committee would then issue the notice of award to the winning bidder in Sept. 17 and the winner would have to comply with all the requirements within 20 days from official receipt of the notice.

Based on a PPP Center briefing paper, the Mactan-Cebu airport project involves the construction of a world-class passenger terminal building with a capacity of eight million passengers a year as well as the operation and maintenance of the old and new facilities.

The Mactan-Cebu international airport is situated in a 797-hectare property and has a single 3,300 meter runway that is complemented by a full-length taxiway.

The terminal building has a capacity of handling 4.5 million passengers annually on two wings, the domestic wing and the international wing. It is a major trade center in the south for both domestic and international traffic.

The passenger traffic for year 2011 was around 6.2 million passengers.  The deterioration in the level of convenience and lack of ability to handle more passengers may hinder further development  and growth of international airport.

To solve the problem, DOTC is set to bid a contract for the construction of a new world-class passenger terminal building with a capacity of about eight million passengers per year; and the operation of the old and new facilities.

The construction of a new world-class passenger terminal, including all related facilities, is proposed to separately cater to domestic and international operations with an initial investment of P10.3 billion and a future expansion of P12 billion.

Several companies including diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp., the tandem of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. as well as Metro Pacific Investments Corp. have expressed interest in the airport project.