For now, the DGAC is expected to sign the transfer of jurisdiction to the Maintain council, that is, the handling of the agreement.
MANTA, Manabi
The Minister of Transportation and Public Works, Marcelo Cabrera, announced the delegation of the Eloy Alfaro airport concession process to the Municipality of Manta. This was announced during his participation in the solemn session for the 99 cantonization of that town, last Thursday night.
“In a few days the mayor (Agustín Intriago) will have the delegation from the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC), to endorse the Manta airport concession process,” announced the state official at that event.
After a setback in the delegation from the Manabi air terminal to Korean Airport Corporation (KAC), a South Korean public company, the concession process, which was scheduled to take place this year, was postponed. Last April, the Lenín Moreno government decided to delegate the administration of the terminal to the Korean company for a period of 30 years. However, in July of this year, the Civil Aviation Directorate (DGAC) declared the process void based on a report from a technical commission. After that, the MTOP and the DGAC announced the start of a new adjudication process.
Jimmy Villavicencio, president of the Technical Citizen Technical Committee for the development of the Eloy Alfaro de Manta airport, in charge of initiating dialogues with the Ecuadorian Government and representatives of KAC, indicated that this change implies that now it will be Manta that will negotiate the terms of this delegation, The majority will maintain the same terms that had already been known, an investment of more than 250 million dollars by the delegate over a period of 30 years.
The executive added that the fundamental change for the new delegation process is that it will no longer be the national government that negotiates the terms of the transfer or concession of the Eloy Alfaro airport, but that the Municipality of Manta is the one that will deal with these issues directly with the directors of the KAC, which are expected to arrive in the city this month.
For now, the DGAC is expected to sign the transfer of negotiating power to the municipality of Manta, that is, the handling of the agreement. For this reason, it is not anticipated to give a date on which the delegation of the Manabi air terminal will take place.
“All the benefits obtained from the concession belong to the city, before it was the State, and the State gave something to the city, now the city is the one that sets the terms, the city is the one that negotiates, the one that it benefits from the fruit of the concession, that’s what it means, “said Villavicencio.
Villavicencio reiterated that the terms are maintained and are the same as those already pre-negotiated with the KAC. However, for example, it will seek to improve the establishment of routes, since the idea of Asians is to start with regional routes, but it is intended to agree to start with more distant flights, among other details.
Minister Cabrera pointed out that in the next few days the rehabilitation of the Port-Airport road will begin and that despite the economic crisis that the country is going through, a way will be sought to complete the Manta-Colisa road, a route whose cost exceeded 100 million euros. dollars, with resources obtained with the Solidarity Law after the 2016 earthquake, and which is currently paralyzed.
The MTOP will also intervene on the Portoviejo-Quevedo highway, through a concession process, Cabrera added. “This route will be the object of the necessary call for the concession process in a short time, a work of fundamental importance not only for Manabí, but for the entire country,” he said. (I)
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