TLI Staff
New Delhi: Delivering second airport project in Philippines, GMR Airports on Friday said it had completed construction of a new terminal building of Clark International Airport (CIA) in the East Asian country and handed it over to Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
“This marks a significant achievement for GMR as it delivers the second project in Philippines after developing Mactan Cebu International Airport – the second largest airport of Philippines,” GMR Group said in a statement.
The joint venture of GMR Group and Megawide Construction Corporation delivered the new passenger terminal building of 112,000 square meters in a record time of 24 months. It is one of the fastest completed projects in the Philippines and first project of the Philippines Government under the Hybrid Public-Private partnership (PPP) model.
With the addition of new facility, the CIA will be able to handle around 8 million passengers per annum (MPPA) from present capacity of 4 MPPA. The capacity of this terminal can be further expanded to handle 12-16 MPPA.
The Bangalore-headquartered infrastructure major which manages the Delhi and the Hyderabad airports was awarded the EPC contract to build the CIA terminal in Philippines following a global competitive bidding in December 2017.
GMR-Megawide had outbid six others, including two Chinese consortia, in the fray with the lowest bid and signed the agreement with BCDA. IFC (World Bank) intermediated transparent and internationally competitive project selection process. The project has a unique commercial contract structure with a Design-Build with 100% Government security of payments.
Commenting on the successful completion of the new terminal, Srinivas Bommidala, Chairman, Energy & International Airports, GMR Group said, “We feel proud to be part of President Duterte’s ‘Build-Build-Build Program’ through the development of Clark Airport and would be very keen to further contribute in growth of aviation sector of the country through more projects.”
Clark International Airport is being positioned as an alternative to decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila. It has the potential to emerge as a future destination for direct flights to and from India.
“Apart from being the largest private airport company in India, GMR Group is also the only Indian airport developer to have developed and operated airports outside India. GMR Infrastructure in partnership with Megawide Construction Corporation of Philippines is operating and developing Mactan Cebu International Airport – the second largest airport of Philippines,” the infrastructure major said.
The Megawide-GMR consortium was awarded the Mactan-Cebu International Airport rehabilitation, expansion and operation for a 25-year concession period.