Ecorail Transport to bid anew for LRT 1 Ext project

MANILA, Philippines - One of the disqualified bidders of the proposed extension of the Light Rail Transit line 1 (LRT1) all the way to Cavite will participate again in the bidding for the Aquino administration’s largest public private partnership (PPP) project.

Cosette Canilao, executive director of the PPP Center, said Ecorail Transport Service Inc. of businessman Reghis Romero II bought bid documents for the P65-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT) Cavite extension project.

“The new entity that bought LRT1 bid documents is Ecorail,” Canilao said in a text message to reporters.

Ecorail was disqualified by the bids and awards committee (BAC) of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) after it failed to submit its 10 copies of their prequalification documents on time last Oct. 22, 2012.

Companies that have expressed interest in the rebidding for the project were the tandem of conglomerate Ayala Corp. and infrastructure giant Metro pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) through the Light Rail Manila consortium, SMC Infra Resources Inc. of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), construction giant DMCI Holdings Inc., and Malaysian-owned MTD Philippines Inc. that were prequalified during the previous failed bidding last Aug. 15.

In addition, the DOTC spokesman Michael Arthur Sagcal earlier said new players led by Globalvia Inversiones of Spain and Megawide Construction Corp. have also indicated interest in the tender.

The DOTC is giving interested bidders until April 28 to submit their bids for a single-stage bidding wherein interested groups would submit their qualification documents simultaneously with their technical and financial proposals to shorten the process by at least two months.

It would be recalled that the DOTC and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) declared a failed bidding after only one of the four prequalified bidders – Light Rail Manila Consortium led by MPIC – submitted a bid last Aug. 15 while other major proponents backed out due to concerns about the viability of the project.

Only the Light Rail Manila consortium minus Ayala Corp. submitted a conditional bid while MTD-Samsung Group, San Miguel Infrastructure, and DMCI Holdings withdrew from the process due to concerns including on who would shoulder the real estate taxes.