Gov’t shortlists Japanese bidders for LRT-1 trains

MANILA, Philippines – The government is seeking anew offers from Japanese firms for the supply of 120 new light rail vehicles (LRVs) for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) after a failed bidding last March.

“Pursuant to the rules for Official Development Assistance (ODA) Funding, the DOTr (Department of Transportation) is inviting eligible Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Bidders of Japanese nationality to participate in the Competitive Bidding process following the procedures specified in the Guidelines for Procurement on the Japanese ODA Loans for the Procurement of New Rolling Stock LRV (4th Generation),” the department said in an invitation to bidders.

The invitation was issued for the procurement of 120 new LRVs for the LRT-1 running from Roosevelt station in Quezon City to Baclaran station in Pasay City.

Under the contract, the winning bidder would be responsible for the design, production, verification, delivery, testing, commissioning, technical support materials associated with operation and maintenance of the vehicles, as well as training for maintenance staff, engineers and operators.

To be eligible to bid, the prime contractor should be Japanese, while the sub-contractors could be of any nationality.

In case the prime contractor is a joint venture, such would be eligible to participate in the bidding provided the lead partner is from Japan, the other partners are Japanese and/or Filipino and the total share of work of Japanese partners in the JV is more than 50 percent of the contract amount.

The pre-bid conference is scheduled on Jan. 20. Deadline and opening of bids is on April 13.

Last March, the Transportation department conducted a bidding for the LRVs but declared it a failure as no offers were given by Japanese firms.

Former secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya attributed the lack of bids from Japanese firms to the surge in demand of rolling stocks in Japan as Tokyo prepares to host the 2020 Olympics.

Light Rail Manila Corp. which is composed of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., Ayala Corp.’s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. and the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure’s Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd. bagged the P65 billon public-private partnership project covering the operations of the train line as well as extending it all the way to Cavite.

The LRT-1’s extension would cover 11.7 kilometers or eight new stations across Pasay City, Parañaque City, Las Piñas City and Cavite.

The extended rail line is expected to help increase the capacity of LRT-1 to 800,000 passengers daily, and benefit more than four million residents in the southern part of Metro Manila and of Cavite.