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MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on Tuesday, April 22, signed with winning consortium GMR-Megawide the concession agreement for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, paving the way for its major upgrade.
Under the 25-year concession agreement, the private concessionaire will take over airport operations by October 2014, the DOTC said in a statement.
The DOTC said GMR-Megawide had fulfilled all the post-award requirements, including payment of the P14.4-billion (US$323 million) premium it had offered as its financial bid, to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA).
MCIAA will turn over airport operations and maintenance to GMR-Megawide in the next 6 months or by October.
GMR-Megawide is expected to begin construction of the new passenger terminal building by January 2015, to be complete in 3 years, or by January 2018. The new terminal will be for international flights and will be connected to the existing passenger terminal building.
The existing facility will be fully renovated by January 2019, and will be for exclusive use of domestic passengers.
The contract signing followed the expiration of the 15-day period to file any motion for reconsideration contesting the award. No other bidder filed such a motion.
The DOTC also did not receive any temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court (SC), which would prevent the project from proceeding.
“Absent these legal obstacles, the Concession Agreement’s signing has fixed GMR-Megawide’s contractually-defined timelines mentioned above,” the DOTC said.
The DOTC formally awarded the public private partnership project to GMR-Megawide on April 4, after a disqualification case filed against it was settled.
Filinvest-CAI Consortium, the second highest bidder for the airport project, had sought the disqualification of the winning bidder citing alleged conflict of interest.
Senator Sergio Osmeña III had supported the disqualification bid, citing GMR-Megawide’s ties with Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Fraport), the foreign partner in the Philippine International Air Terminals Company Incorporated (Piatco), the controversial builder of NAIA 3. – Rappler.com
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