The President has also ordered the completion of an effi cient railway to link Clark to Metro Manila within his term, Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) president and CEO Vivencion Dizon said here yesterday.
The Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) acting president Alex Cauguiran said his firm will soon bid contract for the detailed engineering design for the horizontal civil work component of the terminal so work on it could be started next year.
In a “stakeholders’ roadshow” here yesterday, Dizon said the President wants to have terminal finished by 2019.
The CIAC will be using the P800 million and the P2.9 billion funding allocation from the 2015 and 2016 general appropriations to start the terminal construction next year, Cauguiran said.
Of the total amount, some P330 million would be used for the detailed vertical engineering design.
The CIAC said there is yet no decision on whether the vertical terminal building itself would be funded by the government or the private sector under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program.
Cauguiran said, however, that the terminal would comprise only Phase 1 of the proposed terminal to accommodate eight million passengers annually.
This, even as Dizon also said that Malacanang has expressed interest in establishing a new national government center at the proposed Clark Green City in Capas, Tarlac, north of the Clark main economic zone.
He said the proposal is to create a modern sports complex in view of the closure of the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila and the government’s plan to someday host the Southeast Asian Games.
Dizon said the President is also committed to finish an efficient railway between Clark and Metro Manila.
“Both China and Japan have expressed to help us in this,” he said.
He also said the President wants to also connect Clark and Subic freeports “to make Central Luzon the major logistics hub not only in Luzon but in the entire country.”
“It will be a cargo train and this will happen very, very soon,” Dizon said.
