[ad_1]
Conglomerate San Miguel Corporation, the company behind the P740 billion New Manila International Airport (NMIA) in Bulacan, also intends to take over the country’s main gateway, Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
SMC President and COO Ramon Ang has confirmed the plan to GMA News Online.
“Yes, NAIA … [to] operate and maintain only, ”Ang said in a text message.
San Miguel’s offer came after the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) revoked the original proposer status (OPS) of Megawide Construction Corp. and its Bangalore-based consortium partner GMR Infrastructure Ltd. to rehabilitate NAIA.
While MIAA did not provide the reason for GMR-Megawide’s OPS revocation, reports have been circulating later this year that the consortium allegedly did not meet the financial capacity requirements to take on the project.
In July, GMR-Megawide received the OPS for the NAIA rehabilitation project after talks with the NAIA Consortium, made up of the country’s largest conglomerates, collapsed.
Meanwhile, SMC is carrying out the P740 billion NMIA airport project in Bulacan.
Construction on NMIA is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2021 after the conglomerate awarded dredging company Boskalis a $ 1.73 billion contract to restore land at the project site in Bulakan, Bulacan.
In August 2019, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) formally awarded the contract to build and operate the Bulacan airport project to San Miguel Holdings Corp., SMC’s infrastructure unit.
Both parties signed the concession agreement for the New Manila International Airport on September 18, one month and four days after SMC received the contract award notice.
According to the plan, the project involves the construction, operation and maintenance of a 2,500-hectare airport in the city of Bulakan; and the development includes a passenger terminal building with ground and air facilities, a toll road for the airport and four runways.
The gateway has a design capacity of 100 million passengers per year, but can be expanded to 200 million and is designed to accommodate 240 aircraft movements per hour. It will connect to the North Luzon Expressway via an 8.4 kilometer toll road to be built as part of the project.
Last month, SMC successfully raised 20 billion pesos to partially finance the project, as well as other infrastructure investments such as Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT7). —LBG, GMA News
