(TOKYO FLIGHT. CebPac president-CEO Lance Gokongwei gifts Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade model of the airline’s plane used in the Clark-Narita flights launched at the Marriott-Clark Friday. Photo by Bong Lacson)
CLARK FREEPORT – With the impending completion of Terminal 2 of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here by June next year, the Luzon International Premier Airport Development Corp. (LIPAD) is now poised to take over its operations and maintenance (O&M).
In an announcement on Friday during the launching of three new routes by Cebu Pacific (CEB) at the Marriott Hotel here, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said by August 16, “we will be ready to turn-over the O&M to LIPAD Corp. headed by Bi Yong Chungunco.”
The LIPAD consortium is led by JG Summit Holdings, Inc. and Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC). It was awarded the contract for Clark airport’s O&M in January by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
Tugade also said: “We are ready to open and make operational Terminal 2 of Clark airport by June and at the latest by July with a capacity of eight million passengers.
Another important announcement Tugade made was the cargo rail operation of the Subic-Clark corridor.
“We are expected to commence the process wherein we will be able to connect the cargo operations between Clark and Subic by rail,” he said. “Already, the Chinese embassy has submitted a shortlist naming the three Chinese companies, but one was disqualified that is why we will change that one.”
“With all these processes, we can confidently say that the construction of the Subic-Clark rail will be by the first quarter at the earliest or at the latest the second quarter of next year,” he added.
Tugade also announced the status of the construction of the railway project, Tutuban- Clark: “As we speak today, we are putting reality to that dream in Pampanga, to that dream in Central Luzon, to that dream of the Filipino people to have a railway operating from Tutuban to Clark airport,” he said. “As we speak today, the construction on two phases have already been started.”
“The construction between Tutuban and Bocaue and Bocaue to Malolos, such that it is our expectation that by 2021 it will be partially operable and by 2024 at the latest, the full train operation between Tutuban and Clark airport and then New Clark City will be done by 2025,” he announced.
“This government loves the Filipino people,” Tugade said.
