THE Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center confirmed on late Tuesday that only nine groups secured prequalification documents for the contract to operate and maintain the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2.
In a statement, the government agency named the prospective investors as the Light Rail Manila Consortium of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., San Miguel Corp., GT Capital Holdings Inc., Marubeni Corp., D.M. Consunji Inc., RATP Development SA. APT Global Inc., Spanish firm Globalvia Inversiones S.A.U. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc.
Earlier the PPP Center said 12 companies are interested in the deal, but it was not clear if all of them bought prequalification documents.
The deadline for submission of prequalification documents for the project is set on December 15. It was rescheduled from November 20 to give prospective bidders ample time to prepare their qualification documents.
The key infrastructure project aims to infuse private-sector efficiencies into the operations of the LRT 2 to provide better service levels to the riding public.
An indicative timeline showed that the bid submission date for the deal is set in May or June 2015.
The issuance of the notice of award will be a month after, hence, the signing of the concession agreement between the government and the winning concessionaire will be scheduled by August or September next year.
The private sector may start operating the railway line east of Metro Manila by second half of 2016, the document showed.
The winning bidder will take over the operations and maintenance of all 11 stations of the existing line, as well as the 4.19-kilometer LRT 2 Masinag Extension, for about 10 to 15 years.
Construction of the P9.7-billion Masinag Extension will start by January next year.
It will take the government about a year and a half to fully complete the construction of the railway extension. It will be fully operational by that same time frame.
When constructed, the new facility will add 4.14 km to the existing line.
Two additional stations will be built—the Emerald Station in front of Robinsons Place Metro East in Cainta Rizal; and the Masinag Station at the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City. It will serve an additional 130,000 train commuters from the current number of 240,000. The 13.8-km-long LRT 2 traverses the cities of Manila, San Juan, Quezon, Marikina and Pasig.
The operations and maintenance contract of the train system is one of the six key infrastructure contracts currently under procurement. Other projects are the P6.5-billion Integrated Transport System-South and Southwest Terminal Projects; the P24.4-billion Bulacan Bulk Water Supply Project; the P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project; and the P19-billion New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project.
Since the infrastructure program’s inception in 2010, the government has awarded eight contracts so far.