The Cebu government awarded the P27.9-billion third bridge between Mactan Island and mainland Cebu to the tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., after no companies joined the Swiss Challenge for the project.
Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. chief financial officer Christopher Lizo said “no one bought the terms of reference for the project. So effectively, no challenger for the Swiss Challenge.”
The deadline for the challengers to buy TOR lapsed on Dec. 5, 2015.
Lizo said the company received the notice of award from the Cebu government in the last week of December.
“We are now finalizing the concession agreement. Hopefully, we can finish the negotiation in the next two months,” Lizo said.
Lizo said he expected the company to start construction of the project by the fourth quarter of 2016 or January 2017.
MPTC obtained the original proponent status for the proposed Cebu-Cordova bridge project from Cebu City and the municipality of Cordova in January 2015.
The project spans 8.3 kilometers, which will link the island of Mactan to mainland Cebu through the municipality of Cordova.
The Metro Pacific Group, which corners 60 percent of the Philippines’ toll road industry, operates North Luzon Expressway, Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway and the Manila Cavite Expressway.
The board of the National Economic and Development Authority approved in December the Swiss Challenge for the North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway Connector Road.
It approved the Swiss Challenge on the condition the proponent would lower project internal rate of return to 10.87 percent from 12.09 percent, by reducing the opening tariff from P100 to P87.
The Metro Pacific Group is also the proponent of the project, which involves the construction of an eight-kilometer, four-lane toll road that will link the existing NLEx and SLEx, passing through Metro Manila and using the existing Philippine National Railway alignment as its route.
The Public Works Department will implement the project, which has a total estimated cost of P23.2 billion and a concession period of 35 years.
Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp., which is separately constructing the P26.7-billion Skyway Stage 3 Project, will construct the five-kilometer common alignment from Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa, Manila to Buendia in Makati City of the NLEx-SLEx project.
MPIC also won the P35.4-ibillion Cavite-Laguna Expressway project, which involves the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of a four-lane, 47-kilometer closed-system toll expressway connecting Manila-Cavite Expressway and South Luzon Expressway.
The expressway will start from Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite and end at the SLEX-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.