LRT-1 deal sweetened

A KEY PUBLIC-PRIVATE partnership (PPP) deal -- the P65-billion extension of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) -- has been sweetened by giving the winner a say in the construction of another major infrastructure project.

Instead of bundling the proposed P1.4-billion LRT-Metro Rail Transit Common Station with the LRT-1 deal, the Transportation department will be offering bidders the right to dictate how the facility will look.

“The bidders will be asked to submit their concept design for the common station,” Transportation Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo M. Lotilla told BusinessWorld.

“There’s no bid bulletin yet but ... [it was] approved before Holy Week,” added Mr. Lotilla, who is also the chairman of the department’s Special Bids and Awards Committee.

Transportation chief Joseph Emilio A. Abaya earlier said the PPP deal would be repackaged to include the common terminal which, given a May 28 auction schedule -- moved from next week -- raised the prospect of a fresh bid process extension.

The May auction date now remains on track, with the contract for the construction of the MRT-LRT common station to be bid out separately.

Mr. Lotilla claimed that having design authority over the common station would make the LRT-1 extension project more attractive.

“The essence of having the bidder submit a concept design is to ensure that the bidder is not deterred from bidding [for the LRT-1 deal], because the common station might not be congruent with the bidder’s concept [of how the facility should look],,” he said.

“This way, the winning bidder is assured that the concept design will not stray from his design. Thereafter, the common station based on the winning [LRT-1] bidders’ design will be bid out and winner of that [common station] bid wins common station construction,” Mr. Lotilla said.

The LRT-1 project calls for extending the existing line by 11.7 kilometers to Bacoor, Cavite from its current Baclaran, Manila terminus. The government first tried to bid out the project last August but was forced to declared a failure after the sole bidder -- out of four pre-qualified -- submitted a conditional offer.

The government moved to revise the contract’s terms and the list of prospective bidders has since grown to seven groups. The Light Rail Manila Consortium led by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), San Miguel Corp.’s SMC Infra Resources Inc., Consunji-led DMCI Holdings, Inc., Malaysian-backed MTD Philippines Inc., Globalvia Inversiones S.A.U. of Spain, Megawide Construction Corp., and Ecorail Transport Service Inc. are expected to compete for the project.

MPIC was the sole bidder in last year’s auction. It has asked the Transportation department to clarify how the common station project would be implemented.

The MRT-LRT common station project is a coveted contract, with the group of tycoon Henry Sy having made a P200-million downpayment for the naming rights given the facility’s proximity to the SM City North Edsa mall. The government, however, has said it will return that money after indicating the terminal will be built near the Ayala-owned Trinoma mall instead.

Mr. Lotilla told BusinessWorld the naming rights could be offered at a separate auction.

“We have to deal with it (the naming rights issue) separately,” he said. -- Maria Eloisa I. Calderon