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The P16.93-billion Cebu container port project is eyed for completion by 2028, according to the President’s Report to the People 2022-2024
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The New Cebu International Container Port will increase capacity of the cargo gateway by sharing the international container volume of the existing Cebu Baseport
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Transport undersecretary for maritime Elmer Francisco Sarmiento earlier said they hope to start construction by September 2024
The P16.93-billion Cebu container port project is eyed for completion by 2028, according to the President’s Report to the People 2022-2024.
The New Cebu International Container Port (NCICP) “will increase the operational capacity of the main cargo gateway in the Central Visayas Region by sharing the international container volume of the existing Cebu Baseport,” according to the recently published annual report by the Office of the President-Presidential Management Staff in collaboration with the national government departments and agencies.
The project is one of the government’s big-ticket infrastructure flagship projects.
Last June, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board greenlit the changes to parameters in the NCICP project.
READ: Cost of new Cebu port up 70% to P16.9B
The new project cost is P16.929 billion, up from the initial P9.962 billion, while the new implementation period is up to June 21, 2028, Department of Transportation (DOTr) undersecretary for maritime Elmer Francisco Sarmiento earlier told PortCalls.
Following the NEDA Board approval, Sarmiento said the next step is to request for a special allotment release order, then award the contract to the civil contractor to complete the design and start construction hopefully by September 2024.
DOTr undersecretary for planning and project development Timothy John Batan earlier said DOTr was seeking the NEDA Board green light to hike project cost which has grown since the first Board approval in 2016.
Sarmiento earlier said the project encountered delays in procurement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lowest bid 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 will be financed by the Philippine government.
Sarmiento earlier 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. – Roumina Pablo
