The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Tuesday bared plans to privatize the operations and maintenance of Metro Rail Transit Line 3 and Light Rail Transit Line 2 as soon as the lease contract on one of them expires next year. Their proponents, the DOTr said, will be entertained through a bidding process.
Timothy John Batan, DOTr undersecretary for planning and projects, said the agency “will act within the month” on proposals from both San Miguel Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. to rehabilitate and operate and maintain the MRT3.
“Especially now that the new PPP code has come out, as well as the interim guidelines… We will be writing not just to the MRT3 unsolicited proposals but to all proponents of unsolicited proposals that we have,” he said.
Batan said the policy direction of the government had been to bid out MRT3 through the solicited Public Private Partnership mode. He quickly added this will be bundled with LRT Line 2.
According to Batan, the DOTr has tapped the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help it craft the O&M privatization program for MRT3 and International Finance Corp. (IFC) for LRT Line 2.
“They will be working together and they will give us joint recommendations on how to implement the bundling of the LRT Line 2 and MRT3 PPP project,” he said.
Batan also said the DOTr targets to launch the invitation to bid by the second half this year.
The government’s build-lease-transfer (BLT) contract with the Metro Rail Transit Corp. for MRT-3 will lapse next year.
The government operates MRT-3, while the MRTC, owned by Metro Rail Transit Holdings II Inc. led by businessman Robert John Sobrepeña, is responsible for the design and construction of the EDSA rail transit system.
Formed in 1995, MRTC started building the MRT-3 in October 1996, completed it in December 1999 and started full operations in July 2020.
The MRTC and the government signed the BLT agreement in 1997 to construct and maintain the line.
MRTC financed the construction of the modern rail system stretching along EDSA’s 10.5-meter median from North Ave. in Quezon City to Taft Ave. in Pasay City. The company invested P4.49 billion as equity in the project.
The LRT Line 2, on the other hand, was built at a cost of P31 billion in soft loans, mainly from the government of Japan.
It is a 13.8-km mass transit line traversing the cities of Pasig, Marikina, Quezon City, San Juan and Manila along the major thoroughfares of Marcos Highway, Aurora Boulevard, Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard, Legarda and Recto Ave.
