6 firms vie for P65-B LRT-1 Cavite extension project

MANILA, Philippines – More firms have signified their interest to bid for the P65-billion project to extend the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 1 to Cavite, the biggest infrastructure deal under the administration’s Private-Public Partnership (PPP) program.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said in a bid bulletin that 6 groups are so far scheduled to meet with the bids and awards committee to discuss the project terms.

The LRT 1 Cavite extension project is scheduled for auction on April 28. This will be the second bidding for the project after the first held last August was declared a failure.

The DOTC revised the project terms, increasing its cost to almost P65 billion from P60 billion to entice more investors. The revisions were approved by the National Economic and Development Authority board, along with other PPP projects last November 21.

The 6 interested firms are:

• SMC Infra Resources Incorporated
• Globalvia Inveriones S.A.U.
• Light Rail Manila Consortium
• Megawide Construction
• Alloy MTD Phils. Incorporated
• DMCI Holding Incorporated

SMC Infra Resources Incorporated and DMCI Holding Incorporated were supposed to participate in the bidding last August, but they dropped out of the race, citing business risks.

Only the Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, through the Light Rail Manila Consortium, participated in the auction. Light Rail Manila Consortium is composed of MPIC and Ayala Corporation, but Ayala Corporation also withdrew from the bidding.

Globalvia Inveriones S.A.U. is a transportation infrastructure management services firm based in Spain.

Meanwhile, Megawide Construction is a local firm that’s also bidding for other PPP projects. Megawide submitted the best bid for the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu airport project last December. The firm also won the contract for the PPP project for school buildings.

Malaysian-owned, Alloy MTD Phils. Incorporated, on the other hand, was pre-qualified to join the P35.4-billion Cavite–Laguna expressway project.

The DOTC has announced that it would adopt a single-stage bidding process to expedite the auction.

This type of bidding requires that all interested groups submit the prequalification documents together with the technical and financial proposals all at the same time. – Rappler.com