Wazzup Pilipinas!
Following the Department of Transportation and Communications’ (DOTC) successful auction of the common ticketing system for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) lines yesterday, the transport agency has scheduled the opening of financial proposals for the first airport Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project on Thursday, 12 December 2013.
Like the Automatic Fare Collection System (AFCS) bid, the tendering process for the P 17.5 Billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) Project has been fast-tracked by the transport agency to speed up the government’s infrastructure program.
“We are expediting work on our PPPs. Especially now that we are re-bidding the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension (LRT-1 Cavex) project and preparing to bid out the Integrated Transport System (ITS) project later this month,” said DOTC Spokesperson Michael Arthur Sagcal.
The DOTC will complete the technical evaluation stage for the MCIA project on Wednesday, 11 December 2013, to determine how many of the record seven (7) PPP bidders will be eligible for the financial evaluation phase. This will pave the way for the opening of financial proposals on Thursday.
In the AFCS auction, three (3) of the five (5) bidders’ financial proposals were opened, yielding highly-advantageous offers to government.
“We are very happy with the turnout. Our Dutch transaction advisors even tell us that this is the first AFCS tender in the world which resulted in negative bids or proposals to pay government, so that’s a testament to how well the project was structured,” remarked Sagcal.
AF Consortium, which submitted the lowest bid still subject of financial evaluation under the Build-Operate-and-Transfer (BOT) Law, proposed to implement the common ticketing scheme with zero transaction fees for commuters, while paying government a premium of more than P 1,088,103,900.00 spread out over the ten (10)-year concession period.
SM Consortium, which submitted the next lowest bid, gave a similar proposal by offering to pay a premium of exactly P 1,088,000,000.00.
Meanwhile, new players have indicated interest in bidding for the LRT-1 Cavex PPP project, with local construction giant Megawide Corporation and Spanish rail transport operator Globalvia purchasing bid documents. The DMCI and San Miguel groups, both of which pre-qualified to bid in the original tender, have obtained bid documents as well.
The DOTC is also planning to start the bidding process for the ITS terminal on Coastal Road within the month. This project will provide commuters with a modern and efficient intermodal transport hub, where they can conveniently transfer to in-city buses, the LRT-1 system, or other forms of urban transport such as taxis.
*Photo credit to Philstar
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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