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The Department of Transportation is seeking to start construction of the P16.93-billion New Cebu International Container Port Project by October
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The agency hopes to get the special allotment release order from the Department of Budget and Management, then award the contract to a civil contractor by September
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Based on this schedule, construction could start by October
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The new project cost is P16.929 billion from the initial P9.962 billion
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The new implementation period is up to June 21, 2028
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is seeking to start construction of the P16.93-billion New Cebu International Container Port (NCICP) Project by October, according to undersecretary for maritime Elmer Francisco Sarmiento.
The agency hopes to secure the special allotment release order from the Department of Budget and Management, then award the contract to a civil contractor by September. If this schedule pushes ahead, construction may start by October, Sarmiento told PortCalls at the sidelines of the inauguration of the new Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics Association, Inc. officers.
Earlier, Sarmiento said they were hoping to start construction by September after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board in June greenlit the changes to parameters of the NCICP Project.
The new project cost is now P16.929 billion, up from the initial P9.962 billion and the new implementation period up to June 21, 2028.
According to the President’s Report to the People 2022-2024, NCICP is eyed for completion in 2028.
Much earlier, DOTr undersecretary for planning and project development Timothy John Batan said DOTr was seeking the NEDA Board green light to hike project cost which has grown since the first Board approval in 2016.
Sarmiento had said the project encountered delays in procurement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lowest bid for the project was more than the cost estimate so that paperwork had to be redone and another approval from project funder Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) and the NEDA Board sought.
Groundworks for the NCICP was to have originally started in August 2022. The civil works component was bid out in 2022, and won by a Korean firm.
The Philippine government and South Korea’s KEXIM in 2018 signed a $172.64-million loan agreement for the project; a counterpart funding of P1.28 billion would be financed by the Philippine government.
Sarmiento had said the project has two approaches: civil works which will be funded by official development assistance from KEXIM, and the purchase of quay cranes that will be under a public-private partnership.
NCICP will have a berthing facility with a 500-meter-long quay wall that can simultaneously accommodate two 2,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit vessels; operating facilities and structures for containers such as a freight station and an inspection shed; an access road and bridge; and a dredged waterway and turning basin. It will be equipped with four quay cranes.
The port will be built on a 25-hectare reclaimed area in Tayug, Consolacion, Cebu and connected to the mainland by a 300-meter offshore bridge.
A new international terminal is seen as the long-term solution to growing volumes handled at Cebu International Port.
Several feasibility studies, the most recent one by KEXIM, suggest locating the new sea hub in Tayug, Consolacion, some eight kilometers from the Cebu base port.
The project is one of the government’s big-ticket infrastructure flagship projects. – Roumina Pablo
