The Ministry of Public Work of Paraguay takes a new step in the PPP process for the modernization of Silvio Pettirossi Airport.

More concretely, the Government has received the visit of technical representatives of the 13 companies interested in the international tender for the new terminal construction.

The project would involve the construction of a new airport terminal and the reconstruction of the existing facilities to transform them into administrative offices. The facilities will have capacity to handle approximately 3.3 million passenger per year, up from current capacity of 915,000.

The total project investment is estimated at US$148.7, a total of US$108.4 million will be invested during the first phase and the remaining 40.3 million will be invested in a second phase.

The project will be developed on a design, build, finance operation, and maintenance (DBFOM) basis. The concession period will be 30 years.

The tender process for the project was launched on 18 January 2016 and to date, the companies involved are: Vinci, Cedicor SA, Tecnoedil SA, Korea Airport Corporation, Benito Roggio e Hijos SA, Agunsa, Odebretch, Sacyr Concesiones SA OHL, Incheon, Itasa SA, Constructora and Corsam Barrail Hnos Corvian Construction SA.

The project is part of the Master Plan for Transport and Logistics, which represents more than US$ 2 billion in projects.

The President of the National Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DINAC), Luis Aguirre, said:

"Today we are taking an important step in this PPP process...This is the first technical visit of companies' experts interested in the tender for the modernization of the airport; 13 companies have bought the bidding terms and conditions, and this involves a very auspicious future in terms of the great interest aroused by Paraguay abroad".