State-run Philippine Ports Authority said it is set to endorse by February this year to the Transportation Department the unsolicited proposal of Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. to develop, operate and maintain the Davao Sasa Port for issuance of original proponent status.
“Chelsea already completed all the documents for the project. So we will evaluate it and hopefully by end of January or first half of February, PPA on its part would have been able to determine the feasibility of the proposal and if necessary PPA will recommend it to DOTr depending on the outcome of the evaluation,” PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago said.
The PPA endorsement would justify the DOTr’s issuance of an OPS for the project.
Chelsea Logistics earlier submitted an unsolicited offer to PPA to develop, operate and maintain the Davao Sasa Port for P16 billion with a proposed concession period of 25 years.
The company plans to spend P16 billion for the Davao Sasa Port in phases.
The National Economic and Development Authority approved the modernization of Davao Sasa Port for P19 billion under the Aquino administration’s public private partnership scheme.
The Transportation Department earlier prequalified Asian Terminals Inc., International Container Terminal Services Inc., Bollore Africa Logistics, Singapore-based Portek International Pte. Ltd. and San Miguel Corp. for the Davao Sasa Port project.
The Duterte administration, however, decided to pursue the project through unsolicited proposal instead of the PPP scheme.
Sasa Port is designed for break bulk cargo vessels, which is vital to the economy of Davao City.
About 500,000 metric tons of steel, wheat, fertilizer, motor vehicles, heavy equipment and other cargo not suitable for containers went through Sasa Port in 2014, according to PPA data.
Davao Integrated Port and Stevedoring Services Corp., an operator at the Sasa port, said the current capacity of Sasa is about 700,000 twenty-foot equivalent units.
The yearly volume handled by Dipsscor, a unit of ICTSI, is 300,000 TEUs.