DOTC moves bid submission date for LRT-2 deal

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is moving the bid submission date for the Light Rail Transit Line 2 public private partnership deal to March this year as it hashes out final details with interested bidders.

In a bid memorandum dated Jan. 20, 2016, the DOTC bids and awards committee said bid submission, already delayed several times, was pushed back to March 8, 2016. It earlier set the deadline on Jan. 26 this year.

The new timing places a potential award within months of President Aquino stepping down in the middle of the year.

In the bid memo, the DOTC said the added time would allow pre-qualified groups to prepare their offers.

The four 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 the LRT-2 still had “a good shot” at being awarded before President Aquino steps down, adding that certain aspects of the PPP deal were being finalized with the DOTC.

“I believe we still need to iron out some questions because of the rehabilitation component,” Francia said in an earlier interview.

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

The LRT-2 project 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 the densely populated areas of Rizal.