MRT-3 operations, maintenance to be privatized as BLT deal lapses in 2025

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is planning to privatize the operations and maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3), the ownership of which will be transferred to the government in two years as the build-lease-transfer (BLT) contract with the private sector owner of the EDSA railway system lapses.

“The government is currently studying doing a PPP (public-private partnership) for the operations and maintenance of MRT-3 after the current BLT agreement expires in July 2025,” DOTr Assistant Secretary for Planning and Project Development Leonel Cray De Velez said during the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

Under the 25-year BLT agreement, the government manages and leases the 16.9-kilometer train system and pays monthly equity rental payments to the Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC), which owns the facility and financed the construction of the MRT-3.

“We’re still studying it right now… The strategy is to privatize operations and maintenance,” De Velez said.

On Friday, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan announced that the NEDA Board approved the increase in the cost of the MRT-3 Rehabilitation project by P7.6 billion, from P21.9 billion to P29.6 billion.

Balisacan said the NEDA Board confirmed the DOTr’s request for changes in scope, project cost increase, implementation period extension, additional loan, and second loan reallocation of the MRT-3 Rehabilitation project.

De Velez said that the extension of the MRT-3 rehabilitation is also in line with the upcoming transfer to the government of the train system by 2025. — DVM, GMA Integrated News