Source:  Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Conglomerates Ayala Corp., San Miguel Corp. and Pangilinan-led infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. are among the eight groups that plan to bid for the P15-billion contract to operate two major Metro Manila train lines, government documents showed.

Five foreign companies have also acquired bid documents worth P500,000 each for the project, according to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC).

Bid documents for interested bidders will be available for purchase until July 10, the DoTC said. The bidding has been scheduled on July 11.

The five-year operations and maintenance contract for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) line 1 is the first project under the administration’s public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure program.

Foreign companies that bought bid documents were US-based Abratique & Associates, London Stock Exchange-listed Serco Group, multinational Jorgman Construction and Development and Japanese companies Sumitomo and Marubeni.

Last month, a total of 44 companies, mostly from abroad, expressed interest in the project.

However, the DoTC has been trimming down this list, telling companies not likely to stand a chance to win the contract not to bother joining the bidding.

Transportation Secretary Jose de Jesus said companies were screened in terms of their financial capability and technical expertise. Companies that were affiliated with other potential bidders were also barred from joining.

The winning bidder will get the contract to operate and manage both train lines for four years, with an option to extend by another year.

The lack of connectivity between the LRT 1 and MRT train systems has been a cause for inconvenience for the one million passengers that use both train lines every day.

Bidding out a single contract for both will lead to the integration of the train lines. The LRT line 1 runs along Taft Avenue from Baclaran in Pasay City to Roosevelt, Quezon City.

The MRT, meanwhile, runs from Taft Ave. to North Avenue along Edsa.

A separate contract for the expansion of the train lines will also be put up for bidding.