PHL to roll out roadshow for $800M LRT Cavite line — Roxas

The $800-million light rail extension project linking Metro Manila and Cavite will be dangled before international investors gathered at roadshow sessions in London, Madrid, Tokyo and Seoul this August, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said Tuesday.   Four million residents of Parañaque, Las Piñas and Cavite provinces are expected to be served by the LRT Cavite Extension.   “We want the countries in Europe and Asia to know about this project. How many projects worldwide amount to about $800 million?” DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas said.   He said the P60-billion LRT 1 Extension to Cavite is the largest infrastructure project the Aquino administration will undertake so far.   The DOTC has conducted a pre-qualification bid conference wherein global contractors Marubeni, Sumitomo, Itochu, Mitsubishi, Leighton Contractors, Systa and RATP Dev. were in the same room with local conglomerates San Miguel Infrastucture, First Pacific and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. FF Cruz, DMCI, San Miguel Infrastructure, and Makati Development Corp.   Possible project financiers were also present: the Bank of the Philippine Islands, BDO Universal, the ING bank China Bank and Citibank. The Development Bank of the Philippines hosted the pre-bid conference.   “We are here to ensure a clean, fair, and transparent bidding process. You can now reduce your risk premium for topsy-turvy bidding processes,” Roxas said.   Target time frame for the awarding of the contract is the second quarter of next year.   The DOTC chief said pre-qualification screening processes will be applied to make sure the companies and consortia that will take on the project have the needed financial, technical, and management capacity to get the project done.   Apart from the construction, operation and maintenance of the Cavite Extension line, the DOTC will also bid out the operation and maintenance of the Line 1 that runs from Baclaran to Monumento, which is 20.7 kilometers long.   The Cavite Extension will add 11.7 kilometers, eight to ten stations, and will end in Bacoor, Cavite. Some 10.5 kilometers of the extension line will be elevated tracks.   Roxas said the project will have official development assistance financing amounting to about P30 billion while the remaining P30 billion will be bid out to contractors who will build, operate and maintain the stations, rail tracks, support facilities.   New LRT coaches –39 in all—will be added to the LRT 1 line fleet.   DOTC also said the extension line will also have 10.5 kilometers of viaduct, support beams, and three intermodal facilities.   Approximately 10.5 kms of the Cavite Extension System would be elevated and 1.2 kilometers would be at grade level. — ELR, GMA News