7 groups to bid for Mactan-Cebu airport project

MANILA, Philippines - Seven pre-qualified groups will be bidding for the P17.5 billion Mactan-Cebu International project, the Department of Transportation and Communications said on Thursday.

DOTC spokesman Michael Arthur Sagcal said that the high turnout of bidders for the project, the first airport under the Public Private Partnership program of the government, is an indication of the growing investor confidence.

"We want to sustain the momentum from this project to the next ones in our pipeline," Sagcal said.

Last week, the DOTC's P1.72-billion Automatic Fare Collection System project received the highest number of bidders for a PPP project .

There are a total of five groups participating in the bidding of the AFCS project, the DOTC said.

The DOTC is now evaluating the technical proposals submitted for both the AFCS and MCIA projects.

It is targeting to proceed to the opening and evaluation of financial proposals next month.

Meanwhile, the bidding process for the P 64.9-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite Extension (LRT-1 Cavex) PPP project will begin next week, when the transport agency will publish its invitation to bid.

The DOTC obtained the National Economic and Development Authority Board’s approval to improve the project’s economic terms, and has announced that it intends to conduct the bidding for this railway PPP project in the second quarter of 2014, to allow new players to join in.

"We'd like the number of LRT-1 Cavex bidders to be more or less in the range of the MCIA and AFCS projects.  This will encourage more competitive proposals, which will be good for government," Sagcal said.