The Department of Transportation (DOTr) targets to privatize the NCR EDSA Busway Project by 2025.
“Within the next few months we will finalize the feasibility study for the EDSA Busway. We will submit it to National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA),” Timothy John Batan, DOTr undersecretary for Planning and Project Development, said.
“We’ll get approvals and then we’ll eventually bid it out [next year],” he added.
The DOTr and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center on 8 March 8 this year launched a market sounding activity to engage potential private sector partners in the project.
Market sounding provides an overview of the proposed PPP project, gather initial feedback and valuable insights from private sector participants, and identify potential issues or concerns affecting project viability.
The potential scope of responsibility of the private sector partner could encompass financing, design, construction, operations and maintenance of upgraded bus stations and facilities, procurement of bus fleet, operations and maintenance of busway systems.
The market sounding activity was attended by approximately 60 private sector participants and five government agencies.
On 5 April this year, the PPP Center and DOTr signed a technical assistance agreement for project preparation and transaction advisory services funded through the Project Development and Monitoring Facility managed by the PPP Center.
The feasibility study is targeted to be finished by midyear.
The NCR EDSA Busway Project involves the financing, design and construction of bus stations, operations control centers and parking depots, and the purchase, operations and maintenance of a high-capacity busway plying through Circumferential Road 4 (EDSA) and other major and feeder roads.
The EDSA Busway, meanwhile, is expected to enhance the existing EDSA Carousel to address the high demand for transportation services along the median of EDSA and feeder roads by increasing capacity and service reliability.
The project may also involve the introduction of electric buses, reducing the carbon emissions along heavily trafficked corridors of Metro Manila.
