Malaysia’s MTD asks for more time to submit bid

Malaysia’s MTD Group plans to ask the government to extend the April 28 bid submission deadline for a massive railway public private partnership deal that will link Metro Manila and Cavite province, as its potential new partner wants to evaluate the project, a top executive said.

MTD Philippines country head Isaac David said the company may need an additional three to four months after reaching an “agreement in principle” with SMRT Corp. Ltd., a Singaporean state-run company that operates railways, taxis and buses, to join MTD’s consortium for the P65-billion elevated train deal.

“SMRT still has to evaluate the feasibility,” David told Inquirer in an interview, noting that their last meeting with SMRT was held last week, “we might not be able to submit our bid without an extension.”

MTD Philippines’s original partner, Samsung of South Korea, declined to participate in the re-auction of Light Rail Transit Line 1 Manila-Cavite extension, which failed in the initial round in August last year due to disagreements between the government and bidders on the terms.

Samsung’s decision, which David noted was due to concerns the process was taking “too long” and because the South Korean giant was able to bag other projects, left the Philippine unit of Malaysian infrastructure conglomerate AlloyMTD temporarily without a key railway operator.

MTD Philippines was among seven groups that acquired bid documents for the re-auction of the LRT 1 PPP deal, which will extend the existing 15-kilometer railway operating in Metro Manila by another 11.7-kilometers.

The deal includes the operations of the entire LRT 1 network during the 35-year “cooperation period.”

The move comes at a difficult time for the Department of Transportation and Communications, which has been struggling to get its PPP deals, which account for the majority of the PPP Program, off the ground.

Transportation undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, who also chairs the bids and awards committee, said extensions would be allowed under limited circumstances.

“If the majority of the bidders request an extension, we would normally look at it favorably,” he said in a text message.

He added that for LRT 1, none of the groups had made such a request.

SMRT is a unit of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, a government-controlled investment company.

It currently operates the North-South and East-West lines, with 53 stations covering a total length of 93.2 km and serving more than 1.6 million passengers daily, information on its website showed.

Moreover, the Circle Line and its extension comprises 35.4 km with 30 stations, SMRT noted. SMRT also operates a fleet of close to 3,000 taxis and over 1,000 buses.

“They have been very successful in Singapore and we hope to bring that here,” David said.

The LRT 1 extension deal involves the construction of a mostly elevated railway extension from Baclaran terminal to Bacoor in Cavite.

The LRT 1 extension aims to provide an affordable commuting alternative for about four million people living in Parañaque, Las Piñas and Cavite, DOTC had said.

The six other groups that bought bid documents for the LRT 1 PPP are Ecorail, Ayala-Metro Pacific, DMCI Holdings, San Miguel Corp., Globalvia Inversiones of Spain and Megawide Construction Corp.