 |
| BCDA Clark Plans - BCDA 2016 Annual Report |
BCDA President and CEO Vince Dizon said that there was a common misconception that the Clark Freeport Zone was the entire Clark. The truth of the matter is, Clark is a 31,000 hectare property - or half the size of Metro Manila. The Clark Freeport Zone covers only 4,400 hectares - 2,300 hectares being used by the Airport, and; 2,100 hectares set aside for mixed commercial use.
The mixed commercial area of the Clark Freeport Zone is where major corporations such as Samsung, Yokohama and Texas Instruments operate, and will soon be the home of Clark Global City. UDENNA Corporation recently invested PhP 6 Billion into developing 177-hectares of the Clark Global City which is envisioned to become a modern business and transportation hub that leverages on the tax privileges of the Freeport Zone and its proximity to the Clark International Airport and both the North Luzon and Subic Clark-Tarlac Expressways. Clark Global City is foreseen to become the Central Business Hub of Central Luzon and will hopefully help to de-congest Metro Manila.
Key of course to the success of the Clark Global City and the other projects of the BCDA would be the development of the Manila-Clark Railway which the DOTC pegs for completion by the end of 2021.
Coinciding with the development of the Manila-Clark Railway is the re-development of the Clark International Airport (CIT). Dizon said that the former American airbase is the biggest in the country and has a world-class tarmac with a runway built in the 1990s strong enough to serve as an alternative landing platform for the NASA Space Shuttle. The development of a new CIT is currently being bid out and they peg the completion of the first terminal by 2020. The first terminal of the CIT will be slightly smaller than the NAIA 3, but bigger than both the NAIA 1 and 2 terminals. When the first terminal opens, they expect CIT to carry at least 8M people yearly to-and-from various international destinations.
But the most ambitious project of the BCDA is the construction of New Clark City.
New Clark City will be the final stop of the Manila-Clark railway and will sprawl over 9,450 hectares of land. New Clark City's vision is to become the symbol of the Modern Philippines - a modern, economically prosperous city inhabited by an inclusive community that espouses equality.
Designed by master planners AECOM and Nippon Koie Co Ltd, New Clark City aims to remain decongested for up to 40 years. The city will have lots of bike-friendly open spaces and will be baked by an efficient mass transit system. The city will be 5 minutes away from the SCTEX and 10 minutes away from the CIT.
Dizon expects the 1st phase of the New Clark City to be completed by 2022, but by December 2019, an athletic stadium, an aquatic center and several retail chains will populate the area in time for the city to host the ASEAN games. 2 office buildings will also be built by then to host various government offices which will be uprooted from Metro Manila.
Dizon said that the challenge for the construction of New Clark City lies in the fact that right now there is nothing there, but in the next two years, he expects to see a "City that's masterfully planned with enough green spaces where one can live and work better."
*Photo courtesy of the 2016 BCDA Annual Report
No comments:
Post a Comment