New Clark City buildup on schedule, says BCDA

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte wants the development of New Clark City, a metropolis envisioned as the next growth driver in Luzon, fasttracked, according to state-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

BCDA president and chief executive officer Vivencio Dizon said the President deems New Clark City as a legacy project and wants its early completion.

Dizon assured that construction is on track and progressing as planned.

“The planned developments in Clark will not only happen very soon, they are already happening as we speak,” Dizon said.

The 9,450-hectare New Clark City is one of the big-ticket projects under the administration’s Build Build Build infrastructure program.

It will be the country’s first smart, green, and resilient metropolis.

One of the components of New Clark City is the National Government Administrative Center (NGAC) which broke ground last Jan. 23.

The project involves the construction of back-up offices of various agencies to ensure continuous business operations and services in case of disasters or natural calamities.

Phase 1A of NGAC also features the construction of world-class sports facilities to be used for the Southeast Asian Games in November 2019.

Infrastructure developer AlloyMTD, the local unit of Malaysia’s MTD Capital Bhd which won the bid to build the government hub, committed to finish Phase 1A in time for the SEA Games.

“To achieve this, we mobilized four times the number of construction equipment normally needed. As of today, we have 101 different types of equipment in the project site and will increase to 150 by end of the month,” said AlloyMTD chairman Isaac David.

“This is on top of the precast technology we are using which means some parts of the buildings are being done in factories and will be joined together at the project site,” he added.

The Budji+Royal firm said the New Clark City is the “best opportunity to celebrate Filipino history and culture” as the design and materials to be used for the construction of world-class sports facilities would be distinctly Filipino.

BCDA has tapped Budji+Royal Architecture+Design to design New Clark City, particularly the sports and residential facilities, the government buildings at NGAC and the new passenger terminal at the Clark International Airport.