The Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2) system is set for facility and service upgrades soon, with a construction contract being awarded by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the bidding of its operations and maintenance (O&M) component now well under way.
“Railway modernization entails improving infrastructure and shifting services towards better customer-orientation. Our projects for LRT-2 will make fast, affordable, and convenient transportation accessible to residents of the densely-populated parts of Rizal, such as Antipolo and Cainta,” said Secretary of Transportation Jun Abaya.
The construction of a 3.9-kilometer elevated guideway for the LRT-2 East Extension from the railway’s current end-station in Santolan in Pasig City to Masinag in Antipolo, Rizal, will be undertaken by D.M. Consunji, Inc. (DMCI), which bagged the contract with a winning bid of P2.27 billion.
DMCI will have a period of 18 months to complete the civil works for the elevated guideway or viaduct.
Meanwhile, the DOTC and the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) will also accept qualification documents of prospective bidders for the line’s O&M component until 2:00 p.m. today under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.
The project will give the winning concessionaire a 10- to 15-year right to operate and maintain the existing 13.8-kilometer line, which traverses the cities of Manila, San Juan, Quezon City, Marikina, and Pasig, as well as the 4.2-kilometer extension to Masinag, and any future extensions of the rail system.
Interested groups, which have purchased invitation documents for the project’s prequalification stage, include DMCI, San Miguel Corporation, GT Capital Holdings, Inc., Light Rail Manila Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, France’s RATP Development, and Spain’s Globalvia.
The DOTC’s Bids and Awards Committee for this project aims to announce the qualified groups by the end of February. Bidding itself should be held in the second half of the year.
Another LRT-2 upgrade that the transport agencies are working on is a West Extension from its Recto Station to the port area in Manila. The proposal is now being processed by the National Economic Development Authority.