Bid deadline for LRT-2 O&M extended to Dec

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has extended anew the deadline for the submission of bids for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the Light Rail Transit line 2 (LRT-2) to get more competitive bids from prequalified bidders.

The DOTC is targeting the submission of bids for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) project in December instead of November to give the bidders more time to prepare their documents after several revisions in the draft concession agreement.

This is the second extension granted by the DOTC as the original schedule for the submission of bids was in June.

The agency is set to issue the notice of award to the winning bidder in January, paving the way for the signing of the concession agreement in February.

The DOTC and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) are set to turn over the O&M of LRT-2 to the winning concessionaire in the second quarter of next year.

The government prequalified four groups last January. These are Aboitiz-SMRT Transport Solutions Consortium; DM Consunji Inc.-Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. Consortium; Light Rail Manila Holdings 2 Inc. (LRM2) Consortium-LRM Holdings of conglomerate Ayala Corp. and infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), RATP Transdev Asia, RATP Development SA), and diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp.-Korail Consortium.

The government is set to conduct another round of one-on-one meetings with the prequalified bidders on Oct. 1 and 2 as part of the PPP Center’s process to ensure the viability of the project and strengthen the transparency measures of the country’s PPP program.

The winning concessionaire would operate and maintain the existing 13.8-kilometer LRT-2 running from CM Recto in Manila to Santolan in Pasig, as well as the P9.7 billion 4.14 km LRT-2 East extension project and the proposed extension to Port Area in Manila.

The private proponent is expected to infuse innovations and efficiencies into the operation and maintenance of the LRT-2 to provide a better riding experience to the public.

Meanwhile, the LRTA and AF Payments Inc. reported the limited public trial of the unified automated fare collection system (AFCS) project are now being conducted in all stations of LRT-2.

Commuters are now able to purchase and top-up beep TM Stored Value Cards (SVC) as well as the new contactless Single Journey Tickets (SJT) via Ticket vending machines (TVMs) and at Point-of-Sale (POS).

Since the initial deployment last July 20, AF Payments CEO Peter Maher said the system has now been tested at all stations.

He added commuters purchased 67,000 beep cards and used their beep™ and contactless SJTs 460,000 times to pay for their trips, and completed 150,000 top-ups.

“The positive results we got from this trial give us and the LRTA the confidence to start roll-out activities on the south bound direction of LRT 1 in the coming weeks,” Maher added.