DOTC to bid out contract for MRT3 supply

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is set to beef up the supply of magnetic cards for the Metro Rail Transit–3 (MRT3) along EDSA to address at long lines of commuters purchasing tickets at the stations.

DOTC undersecretary Catherine Jennifer Gonzales invited interested parties to participate in an open and transparent bidding process for the supply and delivery of MRT3 magnetic tickets.

The approved budget for the project is P25 million for the supply and delivery of 4.252 million pieces of magnetic tickets consisting of 2.252 million pieces of single journey tickets and two million pieces of stored value tickets.

Gonzales said interested parties have until May 15 to submit their bids and the agency is scheduled to conduct a pre-bid conference on May 2.

Last year, the DOTC spent P9.386 million for the supply and delivery of 1.502 million pieces of magnetic tickets for MRT3. The contract was awarded to Banner Plasticard Inc. that submitted a bid of P8.697 million for the project.

The DOTC is set to announce early next month the prequalified bidders for the P1.72 billion single contactless ticketing system for the MRT and Light Rail Transit (LRT).

The groups include the AF Consortium, San Miguel Transport Solutions, the SM consortium, Comworks group, the Lamco consortium, E-Trans Solutions group, the MTD-PRLM consortium, Megawide-Suyen-Eurolink consortium, and Mega Lucky United Consortium.

The AF Consortium is composed of BPI Card Finance Corp., infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp.’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., NTT Data Corp. and its partners include Bank of Philippine Islands, Cubic Transport Systems (Australia) Pte Ltd, Smart International Pte Ltd, Octopus Transactions Ltd. MSI Global Private Ltd, Accenture Inc., and IntraSystems SA.

On the other hand, the San Miguel Transport Solutions consortium submitted bid documents and is composed of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., Catchweight Holdings Inc., Delta Crest Holdings Inc., and AllCard Philippines Plastics Inc. while its partners include Korea Rail Road Corp., Singapore Technologies Electronics Limited, Philippine National Bank, VIX Technology (East Asia) Ltd., and Korail Network Co. Ltd.

The SM group of retail magnate Henry Sy is led by SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), BDO Capital Investment Corp., Advanced Card Systems Inc., Penta Capital Investments Corp., SM Retail Inc., GoldSign Data Co. Ltd., and BDO Unibank Inc.

The Comworks Inc. consortium composed of publicly-held Berjaya Philippines Inc., Philippine Gaming Management Corp. (PGMC), Taiwan-based Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp., Acer Inc., and Info Champ Systems Corp.