11 firms including Ayala, Aboitiz, San Miguel to bid for P35.4-B PPP toll road

(Updated 2:35 p.m.) Eleven firms have bought pre-qualification documents for the P35.4-billion public-private partnership (PPP) project on a toll expressway connecting two major thoroughfares south of Manila. 

 

In a statement Tuesday, the PPP Center, which reviews all projects under the Aquino administration's flagship program, said “11 firms have expressed interest in the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALA-Ex) project, purchasing the pre-qualification documents for prospective bidders” as of July 26. 

 

Interested firms include Ramon Ang's San Miguel Corp., Ayala Corp., AboitizLand Inc., Manuel V.  Pangilinan's Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corporation, and  Megawide Engineering Excellence, the statement showed. 

 

Korea Expressway Corporation, AlloyMTD Philippines Inc. (a member of the AlloyMTD Malaysia Group), Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Limited, Leighton Contractors (Philippines) Inc., Makati Development Corporation, AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, EGIS Projects Developer of Infrastructure & Service also bought pre-qualification documents. 

 

The CALA-Ex project is the third PPP under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), after the Daang Hari-SLEX Link Road project won by Ayala and the NAIA Expressway project bagged by San Miguel

 

According to the invitation to pre-qualify and bid, the pre-qualification documents must be in by September 2013. 

 

“Bidders will first be pre-qualified based on minimum legal, technical and financial requirements set by the DPWH,” the statement read.

For a timeline of the project, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said in a text message to GMA News Online the final bid must be submitted by “December and awarding in the first half of January 2014.”

 

In a telephone interview, DPWH director for PPP Rebecca Garsuta told GMA News Online, “Although we have a working timeline, we will have to conduct market sounding with prospective bidders if they can comply with that.”

 

Consultations with possible bidders is scheduled “sometime mid-August,” said Garsuta. “We are expecting more bidders.”

 

So far, only three projects with a combined value of P28 billion have been awarded since the  PPP program was heralded as the Aquino administration's flagship infrastructure program and unveiled to investors with much fanfare in November 2010.

 

The School for Infrastructure Project Phase I under the Department of Education was awarded to consortium of BF Corp.-Riverbanks Development Corp. and Citicore Investments Holdings Inc.-Megawide Construction Corp. Inc. — VS, GMA News