The Board of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) has modified and approved the detailed development de­sign of Terminal 1 of the North Port, formerly North Harbor, submitted by operator Manila North Harbour Port, Inc. (MNHPI).

 

The Board has likewise extended the time­line in finishing the development, which only covers Terminal 1 or the provision on the Pas­senger Terminal Building (PTB) of the mod­ernization of the country’s premiere but most inefficient port.

 

The Board has likewise extended the time­line in finishing the development, which only covers Terminal 1 or the provision on the Pas­senger Terminal Building (PTB) of the mod­ernization of the country’s premiere but most inefficient port.

 

Latest data showed that instead of having two PTBs to be located in Slip 5 and 13 of the North Port, PPA collapsed the development into only one PTB to be situated from Pier 4 to Pier 6 increasing the capacity to 1,600 persons at any given time.

 

PPA has likewise set November 2013 as the new completion date for the PTB or eight months later than the original target date of April 2013.

 

“All approved designs only cover Terminal 1 while the other designs are still pending,” PPA port district manager for Manila and North Luzon Engr. Constante Farinas explained.

 

“However, despite the new completion dates approved by PPA, operator MNHPI commit­ted to finish the project by next year,” Farinas added.

 

MNHPI has committed some P14.5 billion to modernize North Port that include the re­configuration of the existing ports, expansion of its operational area from 52 hectares to 70 hectares and improve other operational facili­ties.

 

MNHPI, a joint venture between Harbour Centre Port Terminals, Inc. and San Miguel Corp., is also committed to develop container terminal, general cargo terminal and the pas­senger terminal that will be considered as one operational area.

 

Phase I of the project will be implemented over a period of six years. The first year of the contract should complete the crane rail for two load-on load-off berths at Terminal 1 and pavement/concreting of container yards. Af­ter the completion of the crane rail for the two LO-LO berths, the operator shall procure two shore cranes and support equipment.

 

So far, the JV already invested some P1 billion wherein P650 million came from Harbour Cen­tre and P350 million from Petron-San Miguel for the purchase of equipments inside the port.

 

Another P1 billion was infused partly for the interim passenger terminal and container ter­minal, which are part of the phase 1 of the modernization project.

 

This year, MNHPI expects to handle 780,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), up from last year’s 630,000 TEUs.

 

Based on PPA’s projection, volume at the North Port can be around 850,000 TEUs. The port has a capacity of 1.2 million TEUs to 1.5 million TEUs.