The Public Works Department said it expects to award the contract to build and operate an expressway linking the north and south of Manila in the third quarter of the year.
The signing of the 35-year concession agreement for the P23.2-billion North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway Connector Road Project is scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The issuance of bidding documents for project and the actual Swiss Challenge are scheduled in the second quarter of 2016.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson earlier said the agency would publish the Swiss Challenge this month.
The Swiss Challenge was set after Manila North Tollways Corp., the original proponent of the project, agreed to reduce the internal rate of return to 10.87 percent from 12.09 percent, by lowering the opening tariff from P100 to P87.
The P23.2-billion project involves the construction of an eight-kilometer, four-lane toll road that will pass through Metro Manila along the existing Philippine National Railways alignment.
Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp., which is separately buildings the P26.7-billion Skyway Stage 3 Project, will build the five-kilometer common alignment from Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa, Manila to Buendia in Makati City of the NLEx-SLEx project.
MNTC, which operates NLEx, signed a joint venture with Philippine National Construction Corp. in a bid to facilitate construction of the NLEx-SLEx connector.
Other MNTC shareholders are Egis Projects S.A. of France, Leighton Asia Ltd. of Australia and PNCC, which holds the franchise to run the expressway.
The government decided to subject the project to a Swiss challenge after the Justice Department issued a legal opinion, saying the decision of the board of the National Economic and Development Authority to implement the project as a joint venture was “without factual basis or jurisdiction.”
The joint-venture route aimed to do away with the Swiss challenge, which was required of the project when it was still being pursued as an unsolicited venture.
MNTC reported a net income of P2.22 billon in the January-September period last year, up 22 percent from P1.82 billion a year ago, mainly due to high traffic growth and toll revenues generated during the period.
MNTC’s revenues in the nine-month period grew 10 percent to P6.04 billion from P5.47 billion last year, as average daily traffic hit 199,196, up 9 percent in 2014.