D.M. Consunji Inc. bagged the contract to build the Light Rail Transit Line 2 expansion that will run from Santolan in Pasig City to Masinag in Antipolo, Rizal, with a winning bid of P2.27 billion.
The Transportation Department on Tuesday announced DMCI’s winning offer and a separate auction for the operations and maintenance component of LRT-2.
“Railway modernization entails improving infrastructure and shifting services towards better customer-orientation,” said Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya in a statement.
“Our projects for LRT-2 will make fast, affordable and convenient transportation accessible to residents of the densely-populated parts of Rizal, such as Antipolo and Cainta,” he said.
The LRT-2 expansion project involves the construction of a 3.9-kilometer elevated rail from the railway’s current end-station in Santolan in Pasig City to Masinag in Antipolo City, Rizal.
DMCI has 18 months to complete the civil works for the elevated guideway or viaduct.
Meanwhile, Transportation and the Light Rail Transit Authority will accept qualification documents of prospective bidders for the line’s O&M component until 2:00 p.m. Tuesdy under the public-private partnership scheme.
The project will give the winning concessionaire a 10- to 15-year right to operate and maintain the existing 13.8-kilometer line, which traverses the cities of Manila, San Juan, Quezon City, Marikina and Pasig, as well as the 4.2-kilometer extension to Masinag, and any future extensions of the rail system.
Interested groups which have purchased invitation documents for the project’s pre-qualification stage include DMCI, San Miguel Corp., GT Capital Holdings Inc., Light Rail Manila Corp., Marubeni Corp., France’s RATP Development and Spain’s Globalvia.
Those who submitted qualification documents are Aboitiz equity Ventures–SMRT Transportation Solutions consortium, DMCI Consunji Inc.-Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd Consortium, LRM2 Consortium and San Miguel-Korail Consortium.
Transporation’s bids and awards committee plans to announce the qualified groups by the end of February. The bidding is expected be held in the second half of the year.
Another LRT-2 upgrade that the transport agencies are working on is the west extension from the Recto station to the port area in Manila. The National Economic and Development Authority is now reviewing the proposal.