Posted on December 28, 2014 09:39:00 PM
By Chrisee Jalyssa V. Dela Paz, Reporter
AT LEAST FIVE key infrastructure projects will be the focus of a “final push” by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) before the administration’s term ends in mid-2016, the head of the department said.
Among the “key infrastructure projects”, according to Mr. Abaya, are the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Development Project, the P374.5-billion Makati-Pasay-Taguig Mass Transit System Loop, the P177.22-billion North-South Railway Project (South Line), a new international airport, and a new international port.
“The direction we’re heading is that we need to come up with our last push for the last 18 months of the current administration” and where infrastructure goes beyond the current government.
“These five deals will be game-changing projects, as they are some of the biggest PPP (public-private partnership) deals,” Mr. Abaya said in his session with reporters.
The NAIA Development Project, under the PPP scheme, “is now undergoing a feasibility study, which is expected to be finished within the first half of 2015.”
“This is one of our key infrastructure projects; some would say it’s just administrative, but this could be a game-changer if you allow private sector (like the entities behind) Changi or Incheon to operate the whole NAIA complex,” he said, referring to the flagship airports of Singapore and South Korea. “So we’re pushing for the rollout of this within President Aquino’s administration.”
The NAIA Development Project is intended to improve all existing operations of the NAIA with the exception of air traffic services, according to the Web site of the PPP Center.
The project, according to PPP Center, is being undertaken to bring operations up to International Civil Aviation Organization standards and develop the main gateway airport of the Philippines.
“To decongest NAIA, the new international gateway is also under way,” Mr. Abaya said, adding that his department expects the full feasibility study by June on a recommendation by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to use Sangley Point as the new gateway.
“That project will take time as it is a very huge one. Once it’s cleared by the NEDA-ICC (National Economic and Development Authority-Investment Coordination Committee) and the NEDA Board, we can bid it out,” he explained.
Mr. Abaya said the department is “more likely to go ahead with the bidding under PPP, while for part of it we’ll use a public sector-ODA (official development assistance) and some from the national budget.”
The Japanese agency’s proposed Sangley airport would cost around $10 billion, he said.
Asked if San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) and All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corp.’s (ARCC) proposals to build a new international gateway are still live options, Mr. Abaya replied: “Clearly, the location will be Sangley kasi (because) that’s in the JICA study. We are in possession of the ARCC proposal; it’s just that we’re not comfortable allowing it to be undertaken as an unsolicited proposal. We never received formal proposal from SMC.”
“More likely the JICA study will be the basis of the new international gateway,” he added.
Asked for a timeline, Mr. Abaya replied: “No indicative timeline yet until full (feasibility study) is submitted to us.”
The department will also roll out before the Aquino administration’s term ends a project “aimed at developing a new port in Manila Bay or expanding existing ports in Batangas and Subic,” Mr. Abaya said, pending the completion of the requisite feasibility studies.
“Eventually, we’ll hit the ceiling (on capacity) at the Manila Ports; there was a proposal before to build an international port in Sangley by ARCC and one from the Public Works and Highways department’s side (for a site in) Bulacan,” he added, saying that “these things are being discussed.”
“What was decided upon is that we’ll compare the two on where the port should be. But first, there should be a feasibility study,” he added.
In January 2013, the Tieng-led consortium ARRC presented to the Transportation department the Sangley Integrated Sea-Air Project. Costing for the project was not indicated.
According to a copy of the Sangley Sea-Air project presentation available on ARRC’s Web site, the objective is to develop a hub for a regional airline and a low-cost carrier for what will be known as the Aquino-Sangley International Airport (ASIA). Meanwhile the port, intended for bulk liquids, will be called the Aguinaldo-Sangley International Port (ASIP).
Other components of Sangley Sea-Air are a connecting road and rail and water transport infrastructure, the redevelopment of the current NAIA facilities, and the development of a 400-hectare complex designated as West Bay City.
The first phase requires the reclamation of 50 hectares off the Danilo Atienza Air Base and the development of a bulk liquid depot with 200 million-liter capacity, estimated to cost P10.8 billion.
The second phase, meanwhile, involves the reclamation of 100 hectares also alongside the air base estimated to cost P16 billion, development of a container facility with a capacity of 4 million twenty-foot equivalent units for about P9 billion, and a container rail service from the proposed ASIP to the Philippine National Railways Calamba depot.
Mr. Abaya said the department will also “publish an invitation to bid for the Makati-Pasay-Taguig Mass Transit System Loop and North-South Railway Project before mid-2016.”
“Hopefully these will solve the headaches and congestion of today and something that the next administration will continue,” he said, while expressing the hope that the successor government will see that the projects were implemented “on their merits, with no agenda and no political interest; it will help them hit the ground running because from day one, they have plans laid out with the best interest of the people in mind,” Mr. Abaya said.
“The problems won’t be solved in 18 months. We have enough in the pipeline. Let’s say the dream plan submitted by JICA, some of the components have been addressed, some have not been touched on, that would be the base template, and the succeeding administration should continue,” he added.
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