DOTr lures rail bidders via multilateral backing

SINGAPORE—The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is turning to multilateral-backed financing tools to spruce up its upcoming railway public-private partnership (PPP) projects and attract more private operators and investors.

Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John Batan said these “new-to-the-Philippines” and “new-to-the-world” guarantee mechanisms would serve as a cushion for proponents vying for several rail projects slated for PPP rollout.

These include the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) capacity expansion and operations and maintenance (O&M) concession, the Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2) rehabilitation and O&M project, and the Metro Manila Subway Project O&M contract.

“If we use them, it enables us to better attract private sector capital,” Batan said on the sidelines of the Asia Infrastructure Forum 2026 in Singapore.

One such measure is a proposed $300-million step-up loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), a lending arm of the World Bank Group, for the LRT-2 PPP project.

This concessional financing package will be optional for bidders. According to Batan, proponents may tap the facility if doing so allows them to submit more competitive proposals.

Should the winning bidder opt for the loan, it would help finance a project estimated to cost $692.61 million over a 30-year concession period. This project aims to raise daily ridership on LRT-2 to 570,000 passengers from roughly 150,000 today.

Batan said similar financing tools have already been deployed in other rail PPP transactions, including the Metro Manila Subway and the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) O&M concessions. INQ