8 firms eye P1.3-B LRT deal

Several groups, including top Philippine and Japanese conglomerates, have expressed interest in the P1.3-billion maintenance contract for the Light Rail Transit Line 2, a government official said on Friday.

Hernando Cabrera, Light Rail Transit Authority spokesperson, said eight companies had bought bid documents for the project.

These are D.M. Consunji Inc., Japan’s Marubeni Corp., Multi-Scan Corp./Hyundai Rotem Corp., Autre Porte Technique Global Inc., Telefonicka Inc., Comm Builders and Technology Phils. Corp., Global Epcom Services Inc. and Busan Transportation Corp.

Bids are expected to be submitted on July 25, a previous bulletin showed.

The LRTA earlier said bidding would be restricted to Filipino citizens, sole proprietorships, partnerships, or organizations with at least 60 percent interest or outstanding capital stock belonging to Filipino citizens.

Bidding will be conducted through an open and competitive bidding procedure using a nondiscretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified in the revised implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 9184.

The move comes ahead of the bidding of the operations and maintenance contract of LRT-2, which is a 13.8-kilometer line from Recto to Santolan, through its public private partnership program.

The Department of Transportation and Communication also plans to extend this by 4.19-km to Masinag in Rizal.

The PPP for the LRT-2 involves the operations and maintenance contract for a 10 to 15-year period, the DOTC said previously.

“This project will result in higher performance standards, improving train availability and punctuality.  It will also ensure better system preservation covering the tracks, train coaches, and other facilities,” DOTC said.

A total of 71.45 million passengers used the LRT-2 system last year, translating to almost 200,000 passengers per day, data from the LRTA showed.

Gross revenue collections during the period hit P949.88 million, the data showed. Miguel R. Camus