Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade ordered the opening of Clark International Airport’s (CRK) new passenger terminal building (PTB) by January 2021 at the latest.
“Let’s make this operational by January of next year at the latest. I’m not inclined to make any extensions,” Tugade said during an inspection of the project on July 15.
Presidential Adviser for Flagship Projects and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president and chief executive officer Vivencio Dizon said Tugade’s target will be followed, noting that construction of the PTB is now at 99.14% completion rate. BCDA is the parent company of Clark International Airport Corp., which oversees the Clark airport complex where CRK is situated.
Construction of the second PTB of CRK–part of the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program–is envisioned to help spur economic progress and development in Central Luzon. It also aimed to help ease congestion at the country’s main gateway, Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Once complete, the new PTB will boost CRK’s annual operational capacity to 12.2 million passengers, triple the current 4.2 million passengers.
Dizon earlier said the new PTB is part of a five-phase expansion plan to make CRK a major gateway of the region. He said once the five-phase project is completed, CRK’s annual capacity will go up to 80 million passengers.
In 2017, the joint venture between the Philippines’ Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure won the contract to engineer, procure and construct the CRK expansion project.
