Bid for LRT extension put on hold

THE TRANSPORTATION department postponed anew the bidding for the P60-billion Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 extension to Cavite, a bid bulletin issued yesterday by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) showed.

The DOTC special bids and awards committee said the decision to postpone the bidding of the operation project to August 15 from July 30 was made to “allow bidders ample time to prepare their bid proposals.”

There are four qualified bidders for the massive project, which aims to extend the LRT Line 1 from Baclaran to the Niyog station in Bacoor, Cavite. This will increase average weekday ridership from 560,000 passengers to 820,000 passengers by 2015.

The bidders are DMCI Holdings Inc. of the Consunji group, Light Rail Manila consortium (which is made up of Metro Pacific Investments and Ayala Corp.), the consortium of SMC Infra Resources Inc. and MTD Samsung consortium, which is led by Malaysia’s MTD Group and South Korea’s Samsung.

Two other local groups, EcoRail and Light Rail Transit Systems of the Romero group, also submitted documents but were disqualified for being late.

Jose Perpetuo Lotilla, Transportation undersecretary for legal affairs, had said that the delay was due to the complicated nature of railways.

The railway project is among the public private partnership (PPP) deals being auctioned off by the government. The LRT Line 1 extension will involve the construction of a 10.5-kilometer elevated section, while 1.2 kilometers will be on street level.

The whole stretch of the integrated LRT 1, spanning approximately 32.4 kilometers, will be operated and maintained by the private proponent for 35 years.