4 firms eye LRT expansion project

MANILA, Philippines – Four companies, including San Miguel Corp. (SMC), have expressed interest in bidding for the P65-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT) Cavite extension project, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) announced Tuesday, December 10.

“New players have indicated interest in bidding for the LRT1 Cavite PPP (public private partnership) project,” said DOTC spokesman Michael Arthur Sagcal.

SMC, DMCI Holdings, Megawide Corporation, and Spanish rail transport operator Globalvia purchased bid documents for the project.

An earlier bidding failed after most firms that were prequalified backed out due to viability concerns, which the DOTC has addressed in this second round.

The DOTC said the agency has begun rolling out major PPP projects, such as opening financial bids for the P1.7-billion Automated Fare Collection System (AFCS) project and the scheduled opening of bids for P17.5 billion Mactan Cebu International Airport expansion on Thursday.

“We are expediting work on our PPPs. Especially now that we are re-bidding the LRT 1 Cavite Extension project and preparing to bid out the Integrated Transport System project later this month,” Sagcal explained.

The DOTC gave interested bidders until April 28 to submit their proposed bids for the LRT 1 extension project. It will be speeding up a single-stage process allowing interested groups to send in qualification documents and technical and financial proposals to accelerate the bidding process by at least two months.

“In fact, we are expediting it. We will adopt the single-stage bidding process, and we will set the bid submission date in the earlier part of second quarter of 2014,” he added.

The revised terms state that the government will absorb the payment of real property taxes (RPT), ensure the integrity of the facility’s structure for two years, permit a 5% fare increase when the project finishes, and allow negative bid submissions.

Previously, the DOTC and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) called a failed bidding after all but one of the proponents backed out due to some viability concerns about the project. Only one – Metro Pacific Investments Corporation’s Light Rail Manila Consortium – submitted a bid August 15.

Because of concerns regarding who would take care of the real estate taxes, the 3 other bidders – MTD-Samsung Group, San Miguel Infrastructure Resources Incorporated, and DMCI Holdings Incorporated – withdrew from the bidding process.

The cost of the project increased from P60 billion to P64.9 billion because additional components meant as separate projects were included in the project. These include remedial and rehabilitative works for existing systems and trains, compliance with laws and regulations, equipment installations, and contingency costs.

The DOTC is also planning to begin the bidding process for the Coastal Road ITS terminal within the month to give commuters a modern transport hub to transfer to other to the LRT 1 system or other forms of transport. – Rappler.com