The Transportation department is seeking bidders for a P4-billion central public transport hub near the Ayala Group’s Food Terminal Inc. compound in southern Metro Manila, the auction’s invitation Thursday showed.
The department said interested groups have until Oct. 6 to submit prequalification documents for the project, formally known as the Integrated Transport System Project- South Terminal.
During prequalification, the agency will determine which groups may proceed in the bidding process. No bid submission date, however, has been set as of Thursday, PPP Center executive director Cosette Canilao said in a text message.
The FTI complex is owned by Ayala Land Inc. Its parent firm Ayala Corp., which has bagged several PPP deals, said Thursday it would consider the project.
“We will look into the project first, then decide later whether to participate,” John Eric Francia, Ayala managing director, said in an email. “It’s good to see that there is a continuous flow of PPP projects and a steady pipeline.”
The deal is the second of its kind to be auctioned off under the Aquino administration’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program. The Transportation department earlier published an invitation to bid for the ITS project, Southwest Terminal, for which bids are expected on Aug. 30, according to a previous bid bulletin.
Ayala, San Miguel Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments of Manuel V. Pangilinan were earlier said to be keen on bidding for the Southwest Terminal deal. Intermodal hubs—where provincial bus passengers may disembark and transfer to other in-city modes of transportation such as rail lines, city buses and UV Express vans—have been incorporated to the ITS system design, the department said.
In the case of ITS South Terminal, the project will connect passengers from the Laguna/Batangas areas to transport systems in the metropolis, including a planned North-South Commuter Rail, city buses and taxis, it noted.
The winning bidder will finance, design, build and operate the terminal for a period of 35 years, department officials said. It would be employing a two-stage envelope system for the bidding process.
The terminal, the agency noted, would also include a main passenger building, arrival and departure bays, public information systems, ticketing and baggage holding facilities and so-called park-ride facilities.
The government is also planning an ITS terminal in the northern part of Metro Manila. It is studying various locations, including the Seedling Bank on Edsa in Quezon City, Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya said in a previous interview.