DoTC awards four airport projects

FOUR FIRMS have been awarded four separate airport projects in Visayas and Mindanao, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) said in a statement.

D.G. Sarmenta Construction bagged the contract for the Semi-Permanent Airport Terminal Project at the Puerto Princesa Airport for P21.50 million. The bid ceiling was P22.68 million. The project involves the installation of various electrical works, including air conditioning units.

V.T. Lao Construction won the contract to develop the Dipolog Airport for P26.70 million. It involves the construction of river protection and runway strip grade correction of the said airport. The original bid ceiling was P34.26 million.

Advance Tech Construction & Trading Corp. was awarded the Zamboanga Airport Development Project, which involves creek de-siltation, de-clogging of box culvert, and construction of a steel strainer, for P5.74 million. The bid ceiling was P6.02 million.

Vesa Engineering and Construction successfully bid for the Catarman Airport Development Project with P7.52 million. The project, whose original bid ceiling was P7.56 million, entails asphalt overlay of the runway and construction of a perimeter fence.

The DoTC awarded the contracts on Sept. 30.

"This will improve passenger convenience by allowing the airports to meet increasing tourist arrivals in the meantime that long-term upgrades are being done," said DoTC Spokesperson Michael Arthur C. Sagcal said in the statement.

"We are aiming for this to be up by summer next year."

The agency saved over P 9 million from these projects, which the government can now use to accelerate spending in order to boost the country’s economy through the Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP), the DoTC said.

Meanwhile, the P1.72-billion Automated Fare Collection System (AFCS) public-private partnership project under DoTC is set to be auctioned off on Nov. 18, now that the DoTC has finalized the concessionaire agreement for the said project.

The project was supposed to be bid out on Aug. 30 but was deferred due to needed tweaks in its concessionaire agreement. It then was rescheduled to mid-October, before getting reset to November.

The AFCS project entails the decommissioning of the magnetic ticketing system of Light Rail Transit Lines 1 and 2 and Metro Rail Transit Line 3. The system will then be replaced with contactless smart card technology.

The project also involves the introduction of a centralized back office that will perform the necessary distribution of revenues. -- L.C.S. Marasigan

source:  Businessworld