Sasa Port development could be realised

The project for Sasa, one of several ports belonging to Port of Davao in the Phillipines, was pulled out of the funding scheme in 2016 after President Rodrigo Duterte took up office, but is now targeted to be up for bidding by the second quarter of the year, confirmed the Phillipines Department of Transporatation (DoT).

“The Sasa Port Modernization Project, through the push of the (Davao) Regional Development Council (RDC) and the city through Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, is now back as a PPP project,” National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Davao region director Maria Lourdes Lim stated, according to BusinessWorld.

New start

Ms Lim said the Department of Transportation (DoTr), which made the decision to put the Sasa Port upgrade back in the PPP lineup, will update the terms of reference for the project and have this ready by the second quarter, reported BusinessWorld.

The issuance of a new terms of reference will cancel all previous processes related to the project, Ms Lim said.

Five companies had pre-qualified to bid for the P19bn project, They were: Asian Terminals Inc.-DP World FZE Consortium; Bollore Africa Logistics; International Container Terminal Services, Inc.; Portek International Pte Ltd.-National Marine Corporation Consortium with Toyo Construction Co., Ltd.; as well as San Miguel Holdings Corp.-APM Terminals Management (Singapore) Pte Ltd. Consortium with Hyundai Development Company and Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd.

The 80,000sqm Sasa Port is the country’s third busiest port.