THE Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said on Tuesday that the country’s largest passenger terminal building is due to open in March at the Port of Calapan, Oriental Mindoro.
The P353-million project is expected to be completed on Feb. 18, the agency said in a statement.
PPA officials, led by General Manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago, conducted an inspection of the terminal on Tuesday. The facility features amenities like a prayer room, breastfeeding station, children’s playroom, and clinic.
“The assessment of the Port Management Office of Mindoro revealed that the completion rate of our (project) is 17% ahead of its target schedule, and we are set to inaugurate it in March this year,” Mr. Santiago said.
The new passenger terminal building is expected to accommodate 3,500 passengers at any given time, against the current capacity of 800.
The current biggest passenger terminal building is the one in Cagayan de Oro, which has a capacity of 3,000 passengers at any one time.
“I am glad that during our inspection, we saw the progress of the construction of the new and largest passenger terminal building in the entire Philippines at the Port of Calapan in Oriental Mindoro,” Mr. Santiago said.
The previous administration classified the Calapan project as part of a list of 484 port projects undertaken by the Department of Transportation and the PPA since July 2016.
“The new passenger terminal building is expected to provide great convenience to passengers in Calapan Port by making their trip more pleasant away from long queues experienced in the past holiday seasons,” the PPA said. — Arjay L. Balinbin