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THE
Light Rail Transit Authority has prequalified three
bidders out of seven offers to vie for the consultancy
contract for the construction of the North Extension
railway project estimated to cost P6.57 billion. They
are Metrolink JV, Schema Konsult-DCCD Engineering Corp.-Katahira
& Engineers Asia, Inc.-Asia Halcrow Inc., and
SPI-JCCS-WCI Joint Venture.
Transit
authority administrator Melquiades Robles said the
qualifiers have proven track records in the rail
industry here and abroad.
He added
that, “If undertaken by us, the project will only cost
P6.57 billion since we already have the needed rolling
stock and we will only have to construct four stations.”
Earlier offers had quoted P34.2 billion, he said.
The
extension project will connect Monumento Station in
Caloocan City to the North Avenue Station in Quezon City
with a 5.4-kilometer elevated line, thus making a loop
from Baclaran, Pasay City to Monumento to North Edsa and
back to Baclaran.
The
project is one of the top priority projects of the
Arroyo administration. It is expected to serve around
800,000 to one million passengers once fully
operational. Robles said implementation is right on
target and construction begins early next year.
The
transit authority has a fleet of 135 light rail
carriages, including 48 newly inaugurated
third-generation trains, increasing its capacity to
40,000 passengers from 27,000 passengers per hour in
both directions. |
