2 more firms eye southwest bus terminal project

MANILA, Philippines – Two more companies are planning to bid for the proposed P2.5-billion Integrated Transport System (ITS) project – Southwest Terminal.

State Properties Corporation and Expedition Construction Corporation bought bid documents from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) for the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project, bringing to 11 the number of interested companies.

The other companies that bought bid documents include:

• San Miguel Corporation
• Ayala Corporation and property arm Ayala Land Inc.
• Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation
• Robinsons Land Inc. of the Gokongwei group
• Filinvest Land Inc. of the Gotianun group
• Megawide Construction Corporation
• D.M. Wenceslao and Associates Inc.
• Vicente T. Lao Construction
• French-owned Egis Projects Philippines

DOTC undersecretary Rene Limcaoco issued General Bid Bulletin No. 07-2014 setting the schedule of the one-on-one meetings with the 11 prospective bidders from March 17 to 20.

The companies have until May 15 to submit their bids for the 2.9-hectare Southwest Terminal, located at the Coastal Road Terminal along the Manila-Cavite Expressway.

The terminal project will include a passenger terminal building, arrival and departure bays, a public information system, ticketing and baggage handling facilities and park-ride facilities.

The terminal will connect passengers coming from Cavite to other urban transport systems such as the planned Light Rail Transit line 1 South Extension, city bus, taxi, and other public utility vehicles plying Metro Manila.

The Southwest Terminal is one of 3 mass transportation intermodal terminals that will be put up at the outskirts of Metro Manila under the P7.7-billion ITS project. The two other terminals will be located north of EDSA serving passengers to and from northern Luzon, and in the south serving passengers to and from Laguna or Batangas.

The ITS project aims to reduce traffic along EDSA and other Metro Manila roads by relocating provincial bus terminals.

To qualify in the bidding, a company must have local or international experience within the last 10 years and have completed one or more eligible projects with a cumulative cost of at least P2 billion and with capacity of at least 300 parking bays for vehicles.

The company should have local or international experience in the operation and maintenance of one or more bus terminals with a cumulative bus parking capacity of at least 40 passenger buses with a minimum parking capacity of at least 20 buses in each terminal.

A bidder could also have one or more commercial complexes, shopping malls, airport terminals, parking complexes, or freight terminals with a cumulative parking capacity of at least 160 parking bays for land surface transport vehicles and with a minimum capacity of 80 parking bays over the last 3 consecutive years.

In terms of financial capability, DOTC said a bidder should have a net worth of at least P600 million and should be able to show proof that it could raise P1.4 billion for the proposed terminal project. – Rappler.com