The property arm of the country’s oldest conglomerate Ayala Corp. has finally received the notice of award for the P4-billion deal to construct an intermodal terminal along the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) compound in Taguig.
It took the government two months before it decided to issue the notice to Ayala Land Inc., which submitted the bid with the lowest annual grantor payment of P277.8 million.
“Our goal here is to give passengers coming from the South seamless transfers to other modes of transportation, as well as help decongest traffic in the Metro,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said on Monday.
The winning concessionaire is required to submit post-award requirements to the prequalification, bids and awards committee no later than 20 days from the receipt of the notice of award.
Ayala Land will take care of the design, construction, and operations and maintenance of the terminal for a concession period of 35 years.
The multibillion-peso project covers the construction of a terminal within a 4.7-hectare lot along FTI Compound in Taguig. It will connect passengers coming from the South, specifically the Batangas and Laguna area, to other public-utility vehicles that are serving inner Metro Manila.
Construction is set to commence in August 2016, and be completed in a year and a half, or in January 2018. Operations of the terminal will be in full swing by February 2018.
It also covers the construction of arrival and departure bays, public-information systems, ticketing and baggage facilities, and park-ride facilities.
“This is the second Integrated Terminal System [ITS] project that we have awarded,” Abaya said.
Megawide Construction Corp. bagged the P2.5-billion ITS Southwest Terminal deal earlier this year, seeking an annual grantor’s payment of P100 million.
According to Ayala Land Spokesman Alfonso Javier D. Reyes, the deal is an important project for the company.
“This is an important project for us because we’re developing Arca South, so we feel this is a very strategic project and it’s a good project for the country to help declog Metro Manila,” he said. Arca South is an integrated mixed-use estate.
It is estimated that up to 4,000 buses and 160,000 passengers will feed into ITS South from the South Luzon Expressway every day.
“We like to view it as part of the whole, as it is right beside Arca, it is very strategic,” Reyes said.
Aside from the south terminal project, the government has awarded 10 contracts since it launched the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program in late 2010, namely:
- the P2.2-billion Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway project bagged by Ayala Corp. in 2011;
- the P16.42-billion first phase of the PPP School Infrastructure Program (PSIP), which went in 2012 to the consortium formed by Megawide Construction Corp. and Citicore Holdings Investment Inc., as well as the BF Corp.-Riverbanks Development Corp. consortium;
- the P15.68-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport expressway, given to San Miguel Corp. unit Vertex Tollways Development Inc. in 2013;
- the P3.86-billion PSIP Phase II contract, partially awarded in 2013 to Megawide and the BSP & Co. Inc.-Vicente T. Lao Construction consortium;
- the P5.69-billion Modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center project that went to the Megawide-World Citi Inc. consortium, also in 2013.
- the P1.72-billion Automatic Fare Collection System contract awarded to the AF Consortium of Ayala and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) in 2014;
- the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu International Airport New Passenger Terminal project bagged in 2014 by Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructures Ltd.;
- the P64.9-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite Extension deal, awarded in 2014 to Light Rail Manila Consortium of Ayala and MPIC;
- the P2.5-billion ITS Southwest Terminal, won by Megawide and partner Walter Mart Property Management Inc. of billionaire and retail magnate Henry Sy in January; and
- the P35.42-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway bagged by MPCALA Holdings Inc. of MPIC in June.
It intends to plug the gap in the country’s transportation facility in the next decade by rolling out massive-infrastructure projects that are seen to spur economic growth.