The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) are inviting parties to bid for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of Clark International Airport (CRK), the next major gateway to the Philippines and the region.
The invitation to bid was published on April 30, following the approval of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board of the P5.61-billion Clark airport project that entails its expansion as well as its O&M under a PPP concession program.
A primer/information memorandum about the project in general will be made available to interested parties on the BCDA website. The bidding documents for the project will be available from May 7.
BCDA president and chief executive officer Vivencio Dizon said the O&M contract will likely be awarded by August.
Upon awarding, the O&M concessionaire will take over the management and operation of the existing passenger terminal and, once completed and successfully commissioned, of the new terminal building, which is the first of the current administration’s hybrid infrastructure projects.
“The new terminal is going to open in the first half of 2020. It’s on track. We have no indications of delay. It’s moving full speed ahead and I think we can even gain more momentum as we move towards the next phases of construction,” Dizon said in a statement.
Expected to help decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the new CRK airport terminal will accommodate an additional eight million passengers per annum.
Meanwhile, an independent consultant for the CRK expansion project has been procured under the Project Development and Monitoring Facility (PDMF) of the Public-Private Partnership Center as part of the center’s technical assistance to implementing agencies (IAs) of PPP projects.
The independent consultant, a joint venture of the DCCD Engineering Corporation (Philippines) and Agis Avia (France), will provide an independent review, monitoring, approval, and reporting of activities related to the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the CRK expansion project.
Megawide-GMR Consortium last year bagged the contract for the engineering, procurement, and construction of the CRK expansion project. This involves building a new passenger terminal building.
The technical assistance agreement between BCDA and PPP Center to procure the independent consultant through the PDMF was signed November 23, 2017. On January 15, 2018, PPP Center, through its PDMF, procured the services of the DCCD Engineering Corporation and Agis Avia as independent consultant, and on April 10, 2018, signed the contract for independent consultant services with the consultants.
PPP Center in a statement said securing an independent consultant is a best practice for PPP projects. It said an independent consultant “assures and monitors that the construction activities of a PPP project conform to the agreed project standards or specifications stated in the EPC Agreement.”
An independent consultant also issues a certificate of compliance to the designs indicated in the EPC Agreement.
“We are very pleased with the procurement of the Independent Consultant for the Clark Airport Expansion Project. This provides the Filipino people an assurance that the Clark Airport Expansion Project conforms to the deliverables stated in the EPC Agreement, thus ensuring the quality and integrity of its construction activities,” PPP Center director for PDMF service Atty. Lerma Advincula said.
