San Miguel group to join LRT project biddings

San Miguel Corp. is keen on bidding for contracts to expand and manage the Light Railway Transit (LRT) Lines 1 and 2 under the public-private partnership (PPP) framework in line with its diversification into the infrastructure business.

This developed as the government announced on Monday a plan to bid out a contract to extend southwards the LRT-1 from Baclaran to Cavite by March or April this year while the expansion of LRT 2 is also included in the PPP Center’s project pipeline for this year.

“Yes, SMC will join the bidding,” SMC president Ramon Ang said Wednesday when asked about his company’s interest in LRT 1 and 2 after Monday’s pronouncements made by Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas.

Other big groups like Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp. have likewise expressed interest in these railway projects.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Wednesday, MPIC said: “MPIC is interested to actively participate in the government’s PPP program, and this includes, among others, the proposed bidding for the extension of LRT 1 from Baclaran to Cavite. To date, however, no definitive decision has been made, considering that the terms of reference for the bidding of the aforementioned project has not been released.”

The proposed blueprint for the LRT 1 PPP is now with the National Economic and Development Authority and likely to hurdle approvals soon. The vision is to harness private sector money to build the railway extension from Baclaran to Cavite with the help of land right-of-way acquired by the government, which will separately procure the additional fleet that will run the expanded railway using official development assistance.

For LRT 1, Roxas had said that what the government would bid out first would be the design and construction contract for the railway extension, which would cost about P45 billion. The winner will likewise be given the operations and management (O&M) contract for the expanded railway.

Overall project cost of the LRT 1 expansion, refleeting and O&M is estimated at P80 billion but refleeting cost will be excluded in the PPP bidding as this will be separately funded by ODA funds.—Doris C. Dumlao