After the election fever

The Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) Board has approved the P55.9- billion winning bid of A.P. Canlas Construction Corp. for the civil works for the expansion of the existing terminal of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

This was disclosed to The STAR by CIAC president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano who said that the CIAC Board approved the winning bid of A.P. Canlas Construction Corp. during its board meeting last May 15, 2007.

The CIAC Board will ratify and formally award the bid to A. P. Canlas in its next board meeting in June.

A. P. Canlas submitted the lowest bid of P55.9 million over three other bidders.

There were actually five bidders for the P68-billion civil works portion for the expansion and modernization of the existing DMIA terminal.

The four other bidders were Lucky Star Construction, R.D. Policarpio and Co., J.D. Legaspi Construction, and Prismodial Construction. J.D. Legaspi was eventually disqualified.

A sixth firm, Tokwing, had initially expressed interest in the project but eventually withdrew its bid.

The winning bidder, A.P. Canlas, was also the contractor for two projects of the University of Philippines.

Construction for the expansion and modernization of the DMIA terminal is expected to start next month and is scheduled to be completed either by December of this year or January next year.

The expansion and modernization of the existing terminal will allow the DMIA to double its passenger capacity from the current 500 passengers to 1,000 a day.

The average number of passengers using the DMIA has increased to 45,062 a month in the first four months of this year, compared to an average of 39,239 passengers per month recorded last year.