The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has tentatively set the submission of the bids for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 for December, a bid bulletin showed.
In doing so, this allows the agency to award the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to the winning bidder by January next year, Transportation Spokesman Michael Arthur C. Sagcal said in a text message.
“Since bid submission date is scheduled for December this year, award should be within January 2016,” he said.
The indicative timeline posted in the agency’s web site also showed that bidders will have another chance of meeting government officials to voice out their thoughts on the auction from October 5 to 9.
After the said one-on-one meetings, the DOTC will then release the final concession agreement and the final instructions to prequalified bidders.
There are four groups that are prequalified to bid for the deal. They are: Aboitiz Equity Ventures-SMRT Transportation Solutions Consortium; DMCI-Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd. Consortium; the Light Rail Manila Consortium; and the San Miguel Corp.-Korail Consortium.
The project will give the winning concessionaire a 10- to 15-year right to operate and maintain the whole LRT east line.