Ayala-MPIC consortium submits best bid for LRT-MRT ticket system

MANILA, Philippines – The tie-up of conglomerates Ayala Corporation and Metro Pacific Investments Corporation submitted the best offer for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) single ticketing project, according to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

AF Consortium submitted a “negative bid” of P1,088,103,900 during the opening of financial bids Monday, December 9 for the Automated Fare Collection System (AFCS).

The bid was better than the SM Consortium’s negative bid of P1,088,000,000.

“Negative bid means that the bidder is proposing to pay the government to do the project,” DOTC spokesperson Atty. Michael Arthur Sagcal said.

The winning proponent with a negative bid, he said, will pay the government over a 10-year concession period.

Another project that passed technical evaluation, Comworks-Berjaya Consortium, submitted a bid of P2,050,090,300.

The government approved a budget of P1.72 billion for AFCS.

First step

Transportation Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla said the opening of financial bids submitted by the three groups was only the first step in determining the winning bidder.

Lotilla explained that the agency’s special bids and awards committee will evaluate the financial bids over the next 15 days assuming other bidders will not file motions for reconsideration.

According to him, the target date for the announcement of the winning bidder is on December 23 or 24 and the notice to proceed will be issued in the first week of January.

Sagcal added that the contract signing will be done in the last week of January and the implementation of the project will start in the third quarter of 2015.

There were five groups prequalified to join the bidding for AFCS.

However, the E-Trans Solutions Joint Venture Inc. and Megawide-Suyen-Eurolink Consortium failed to hurdle the agency’s technical evaluation.

The project

AFCS is expected to serve as a stored-value train ticket for Metro Manila’s three rail transit lines – MRT 3 and LRT 1 and 2. It is meant to ease the long queues at ticket booths and spare commuters the inconvenience of buying separate tickets for each line.

It can also be used to pay for other modes of transportation, like buses and taxi cabs, and as a debit card for electronic banking and shopping purposes.

LRT 1 runs from Baclaran station in Pasay City to Roosevelt station in Quezon City and serves at least half a million passengers daily. LRT 2, serving 350,000 commuters every day, runs across Metro Manila from Recto station in Manila to Santolan station in Pasig City.

Meanwhile, MRT 3 line runs along EDSA, with stations from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City. It carries around 600,000 passengers daily, almost twice its 350,000 capacity. – Rappler.com