BUSINESSMAN Andrew Tan’s infrastructure development arm Infracorp Development Inc. may get a partner for the operation and maintenance of its Skytrain project, a 2-kilometer elevated monorail that connects Guadalupe Edsa to its property called Uptown in the former Fort Bonifacio in Taguig.
Infracorp President Kevin Andrew L. Tan said they might get a partner for the said project, which cost about P3.5 billion to construct, to operate and maintain the facility, though the company is still in the planning stage.
He said the company might opt to get the supplier of the train to also operate and maintain the entire facility.
“We do have technical partners and we’d probably get a partner for the O&M,” Tan said. “Given the reasonable investment and the traffic, that [Skytrain] will set to grow as BGC [Bonifacio Global City] also grows,” he said.
The company earlier said it may start the proposed 2-kilometer Skytrain monorail project this year after the Department of Transportation granted its proposal as the original proponent.
“We can start the project before the year ends and this would take us two years to complete. By early-2021 we can open the Skytrain to the public,” Tan said earlier.
Infracorp submitted the unsolicited proposal to the government on October 26, 2017.
Under the proposed agreement, the company will build the Skytrain and transfer its ownership title to the government. The Tan firm, however, will have the sole right to operate the Skytrain.
The project will utilize the automated cable-propelled monorail technology, and it will reduce travel time from Tan’s development within the former Fort Bonifacio property in Taguig to MRT Guadalupe Makati and vice versa, to only five minutes at no cost to the government.
The project will also make provisions to interconnect with other transport hubs operating within the area where the monorail passes through. It envisions to benefit around 60,000 to 100,000 passengers daily going to and from the bustling business districts of Makati and Taguig.
“We envision to connect Makati to Taguig and vice versa. These two largest business districts in the country need an efficient and fast transport system that is on a par with what the other business districts in cosmopolitan cities like Tokyo and Sydney have,” Tan said.
Tan said there are also possibilities its Skytrain may be extended to other parts of BGC, a development of the Ayala Group, and other areas.
The proposal will still need to go through a review by the National Economic and Development Authority Board’s Investment Coordination Committee.
Tan’s Alliance Global Group has created Infracorp last year to participate in the government’s private-public partnership projects.
The company is also part of the so-called super consortium that submitted a proposal to rehabilitate and expand the Ninoy Aquino International Airport along with some of the country’s biggest conglomerates.