DOTC eyes award of LRT 1 extension project by Q2 next year

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) expects to issue a notice of award to the winning bidder for the P60-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT) 1 extension project to Cavite by the second quarter of next year.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the submission of financial bids would push through as scheduled in January after the agency accepted the pre-qualification documents submitted by four consortia last Oct. 22.

“Once the bidding process is complete by January next year, DOTC is looking at issuing a notice of award to the winning bidder by the second quarter of 2013,” Abaya said.

He assured that the bidding for the agency’s largest single transport infrastructure project would be transparent, clean, and fair.

The DOTC had to extend the deadline for the submission of pre-qualification documents three times to encourage more participants. It wants to ensure that the companies or even the consortia to be formed have the required financial, technical, and management capability to carry out the project.

“The change in the pre-qualification dates did not delay the whole process since the submission date of the financial bids will happen sometime in January next year. In essence, the project has not been delayed by this encouragement of a few more bidders,” Abaya added.

The DOTC accepted the documents submitted by the tandem of Metro Pacific Investments Corp and Ayala Corp., the unit of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp., DM Consunji Inc. and the partnership of MTD Capital and Samsung.

However, the agency rejected the late and incomplete submissions made by Ecorail and Luzon Rail Transit System.

 MPIC and Ayala own a 33 percent stake each in the Light Rail Manila Consortium.

The Light Rail Manila consortium where MPIC has a 33 percent stake followed by AC Infra Holdings Corp. with 12 percent, Macquarie Infra Holdings Philippines PTE Ltd. (10 percent), and RATP Development SA, one participation unit.

The group’s railway infrastructure would be handled by Bouygues Travaux Publics SA, Obrascon Huarte Lain SA, and Leighton Contractors Asia Ltd. while the railway system would be handled by Alstom Transport Sa and Ansaldo STS sPA. The operation and maintenance would be handled by RATP Development SA.

On the other hand,  San Miguel Infra Resources Inc. is composed of GS Engineering and Construction Corp. and POSCO Engineering and Construction Co Ltd. The railway set will be handled by POSCO while the railway system would be handled by Korea Railroad Corp.

The MTD/Samsung Consortium is composed of MTD Capital Bhd. with 33 percent followed by Samsung C&T Corp. (20 percent), Union Equities Inc.

(15 percent), DM Wenceslao & Associates (12 percent), and Primewater Infra Corp. (20 percent). The railway infrastructure will be handled by MTD Capital and Samsung C&T and system by Hyundai Rotern Co. The operation and management will be handled by Seoul Metro.

The DMCI group is composed of Marubeni Corp. and Sistema Tranporte Collectivo Metrorey.

The civil works including the construction of the tracks, the stations and all its attendant facilities, as well as operation and maintenance worth about P30 billion would be auctioned in January.

The Cavite Extension project would increase the span of Line 1 from 20.7 kilometers to 32.4 kilometers with a new south endpoint in Niog, Bacoor, Cavite instead of Baclaran. The extension project includes eight stations (with provision for two future stations), 10.5 kilometers of viaduct, support beams, and three intermodal facilities.

Approximately 10.5 kilometers of the Cavite Extension system would be elevated and 1.2 kilometers would be at grade level serving nearly four million residents of Parañaque, Las Piñas and the province of Cavite.

The government has set aside P30 billion to acquire up to 39 new light rail vehicles for this project that would be financed through an official development assistance (ODA) scheme of the Japanese government.