DOTC resets LRT-2 deal bidding to April 4

The bidding for the Light Rail Transit Line 2 public-private partnership deal will be delayed further as the Department of Transportation and Communications gave prospective bidders more time to finalize their offers.

In a bid bulletin, the department said pre-qualified bidders would be given nearly a month more to finalize their proposals. It moved the bid submission deadline to April 4, 2016 from March 8, 2016.

Certain bidders also needed the extra time because of some changes in the composition of their consortia.

The new bid submission date is just months before President Aquino steps down in June.

The four pre-qualified groups are the tandem of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp., San Miguel Corp.,  Aboitiz Equity Ventures and the Consunji family’s DMCI Holdings.

Ayala managing director John Eric Francia said yesterday they were still “hopeful” the project could be awarded before the change in the administration.

The LRT-2 PPP deal is one of the projects exempted from the election ban that runs from March  25 through May 8, 2016. It  calls for the private sector to operate and maintain the existing line for a period of 10 years, extendable by another five years.

It is the second railway PPP deal rolled out by the Aquino administration. The first deal, the P65-billion PPP project to operate and expand the Light Rail Transit Line 1 to Cavite province, was won by the Light Rail Manila Consortium of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments last year.

For the LRT-2 deal, San Miguel partnered with Korea Railroad Corp., DMCI unit D.M Consunji Inc. partnered with Tokyo Metro Co. of Japan, Aboitiz Equity Ventures partnered with Singapore’s SMRT Transportation and Ayala-Metro Pacific-led Light Rail Manila partnered with France’s RATP Dev.

The 13.8-kilometer LRT-2 line runs from Recto Avenue to the Depot at Santolan Street along Marcos Highway. It currently traverses the cities of Manila, San Juan, Quezon City, Marikina, and Pasig. The elevated train line handles over 200,000 passengers per day.

Apart from the existing LRT-2 line, the private sector partner will handle the operations and maintenance of LRT-2’s 4.14-km East Extension until Masinag, Antipolo, and any other future extensions implemented by the government during the project’s term.

The DOTC said the P2.27-billion extension project would help serve an added 75,000 passengers per day living in densely populated areas of Rizal.