$3.7-B subway project ready for Swiss challenge

A $3.7-billion Makati subway system proposed by IRC Properties Inc. under a joint venture with the Makati city government will be up for a Swiss challenge or price competition soon.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, IRC announced that a joint certification had been executed between IRC and the Makati city government stating that the former was eligible to participate as the original proponent for the project.

IRC earlier obtained an original proponent status for the Makati subway system, which marked the acceptance by the host local government unit.

Under a Swiss challenge, Makati will invite other bidders to make offers but the original proponent holds the right to match the best offer.

A consortium led by IRC seeks to establish and operate the Makati mass transport system, which has a daytime population of 4.5 million.

To prepare for this big-ticket project, IRC recently applied to increase its authorized capital to P10.5 billion from P1.5 billion.

The project seeks to ease traffic bottlenecks in the city, which is home to the country’s premier central business district.

The IRC consortium —which includes Greenland Holdings Group, Jiangsu Provincial Construction Group Co. Ltd., Holdings Ltd. and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd.—proposed to construct an 11-kilometer intracity subway with eight to 10 stations that would connect key points in Makati’s two districts at no cost to the city.

The proposed subway is seen to complement the mass transport projects of the government as it will interconnect with the Metro Railway Transit, the proposed Metro Manila Mega Subway and Pasig River ferry.