14 December 2012, The Philippine Star
by Zinnia dela Peña
The SM Group of retail magnate Henry Sy Sr. will team up with Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., led by Manuel V. Pangilinan, for the P15.5-billion expressway project linking three terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) with each other and to the Entertainment City.
SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) chief finance officer Jose T. Sio said they would form a consortium with the Pangilinan camp to participate in the bidding for the four-lane elevated expressway which would provide connectivity to NAIA Terminals 1, 2 and 3.
The NAIA expressway, will start from Sales St. going to Andrews Ave., Domestic Rd. and which ends on Roxas Blvd., is the third project lined up for bidding under the government’s flagship Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program.
The SM Group, through Belle Corp., is one of four groups that were granted license to operate a casino in the ambitious Entertainment City project along Roxas Blvd.
SMIC, the Sy family’s investment holding company, is involved in five core businesses – retail merchandising, mall operations, property, banking, and hotel and leisure.
The proposed 9.97-kilometer expressway project aims to provide fast and reliable access to the NAIA terminals and Pagcor Entertainment City by easing traffic situation in the vicinity while boosting economic activities, particularly on tourism. It will also link the South Luzon Expressway/Skyway to the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway and both Roxas and Macapagal Blvd.
When completed, travel time from Skyway to NAIA Terminal 1 will be reduced from the average 24 minutes to eight minutes, thus providing comfort to some 80,000 daily travelers.
Among the other companies that expressed interest to bid for the project include San Miguel Corp., DM Consunji Inc., Ayala Corp.,
Macquarie Capital Securities, EGIS Projects, M/S IL and FS Transportation Network, Megawide Construction, EEI Corp, Alloy MTD Philippines, J.E. Manalo Construction, Daelim Philippines and C.M. Pancho Construction.
The government originally set the bidding in June this year but decided to move it to January next year to give interested parties more time to finalize their bids.
