ONE year has passed since the government launched the auction for the long-term maintenance contractor of Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3, yet it has only achieved one thing: surpass a key hurdle for an emergency procurement.
Finally, the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) has “unanimously approved” the negotiated procurement for the train system’s upkeep, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said on Wednesday.
This allows the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to start the tender process for the said P4.2-billion deal.
“We were given the go signal by the GPPB…to pursue this mode of negotiated procurement,” the Cabinet official said. “We’re targeting to award the contract within the year, and to have the new maintenance provider begin its services in January next year.”
He explained that the policy-making body resorted to approve the proposal to conduct an emergency procurement for the train line’s upkeep provider, as it recognized the “urgent need to address the railway’s maintenance requirements.”
In its request for approval, the transport agency cited the immediate need for a three-year total maintenance provider, as well as the general overhaul of existing train coaches and the replacement of the system’s signaling system.
These are essential in order to address the core problems of obsolescence and complete wear-and-tear.
The ailing railway line has been eagerly waiting for an overhaul, as its facilities are now showing signs of obsolesce.
Lesser trains have been operating —almost half the supposed capacity of the railway system—and yet more and more people are boarding the mass-transit line.
The department launched the bidding for the contract in early September last year, but no private company wanted to take the risk of maintaining a system so degraded it has been tagged by railway experts as a “danger” to the riding public.
In the hopes that companies would be enticed to vie for the much-needed project, the department decided to sweeten the terms of the deal. But, despite the relaxing of rules and the improvement in cost, railway upkeep services companies still decided to evade a “potential risk.”
The risk, industry sources said, is obvious: the train system itself is already dilapidated. Hence, “maintaining” it, in the literal sense, would mean risking the lives of daily commuters coming from the northern and southern corridors of Metro Manila.
Currently, several different companies are maintaining the line, each focusing on a specific discipline.
The subcontractors were engaged directly under a multidisciplinary approach to increase the efficiency of work per component until the long-term maintenance provider is procured.
Under the multidiscipline approach, Abaya claimed that the management of the MRT 3 has been “able to increase the number of operating coaches during peak hours to 45 as of the beginning of August, and aims to bring it back up to 60 by November.”
But once the new maintenance provider comes in, it will start managing all of the maintenance components of the MRT.
“In accordance with the GPPB-approved plan, the DOTC has invited several established, well-reputed international expert groups in the railway-maintenance industry. This will effectively eliminate the possibility of non- or underqualified firms from participating in the bid and eventually winning the contract,” Abaya said.
He said his office will disclose the names of participating groups “once an award has been made.”
Today, the rail line’s average daily ridership is already over 560,000, and its highest single-day passenger count is 620,000.
The government aims to augment the capacity of the railway system by adding new train cars. The prototype for the new coaches arrived last month, but delivery of the actual cars are scheduled for next year.
Once the 48 new train cars come in, the MRT 3’s trips per hour will increase from 20 to 24, which will translate to a 60-percent rise in the number of passengers per hour per direction.
This means that there will be 37,824 passengers who can avail themselves of the rail service every hour heading toward one direction. Currently, only about 23,640 people ride an MRT 3 service per way every hour. But that number still depends on how many trains are running that day.
Aside from adding new coaches to the current MRT 3 fleet, the government is also rolling out P9.7 billion worth of projects to improve the train line. The state also wants to buy out the corporate owner of the line.
But several private groups are proposing a different scheme to modernize the train system, which has been under fire for years now for its mediocre services.
The group of businessman Robert John L. Sobrepeña is proposing to do a “quick fix” solution to make the train system safe for public transport.
Together with foreign firms Sumitomo Corp. of Japan and Globalvia Infrastructuras of Spain, Metro Global Holdings Inc. is proposing to “fix” the ailing system through a $150-million investment that involves the procurement of a total of 96 new train cars, and the rehabilitation of the existing 73 coaches, increasing its capacity by fourfold to 1.2 million daily passengers.
Under the proposal, a single point of responsibility will be implemented: meaning the rehabilitation and the maintenance of the line will be handled by a single company.
Separately, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is proposing to shoulder the upgrade costs of the train system and release the government from the bondage of paying billions of pesos in equity rental payments.
The group of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, which earlier entered into a partnership agreement with the corporate owner of the MRT, intends to spend $524 million to overhaul the line.
The venture would effectively expand the capacity of the railway system by adding more coaches to each train, allowing it to carry more cars at faster intervals. The multimillion-dollar expansion plan would double the capacity of the line to 700,000 passengers a day from the current 350,000 passengers daily.
It was submitted in 2011, but the transportation agency’s chief back then rejected the proposal.
On the other hand, German firms Schunk Bahn -und Industrietechnik GmbH and HEAG Mobilo GmbH are seeking to place whole train system under a massive transformation program to augment its capacity and to provide a safe and comfortable travel to commuters from the northern and southern corridors of Metro Manila.
The P4.64-billion proposal, submitted in February with Filipino partner Comm Builders and Technology Phils. Corp., calls for the complete overhaul of the 73 light rail vehicles of the MRT, the replacement of the rails, the upgrading of the line’s ancillary system, the upgrade of the track circuit and signaling systems, the modernization of the conveyance system, and a three-year maintenance contract.