THE Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Tuesday said that 74 local and international private companies have shown interest to bid in a project to expand the MRT-3, Metro Manila’s busiest rail transit line.
The big turnout was at a joint Market Sounding activity held recently at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters for the MRT-3 Capacity Expansion, Operations, and Maintenance (CEOM) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Project.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had directed the DOTr to collaborate with the private sector to further improve the MRT-3’s services and infrastructure for the benefit of commuters.
“With the help of the private sector, the expansion of the MRT-3 can be done. We are doing it for the hassle-free travel of commuters. And we are happy that many companies are interested in this project,” Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez said.
“This MRT-3 PPP is a very viable and promising project. This is an existing line, and historically, we know its ridership can reach up to 630,000 people a day,” DOTr Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John Batan said.
ADB country director for the Philippines Andrew Jeffries and PPP Center of the Philippines Undersecretary and Executive Director Rizza Blanco-Latorre both expressed support for the project.
“We’re proud and quite privileged to be a partner of the government of the Philippines in this endeavor to improve the overall connectivity for the Filipino people,” Jeffries said.
Under the MRT-3 CEOM PPP Project, the winning bidder will take over the operations and maintenance of the existing line, ensure continued operations without service interruption, manage the MRT-3 area in the Common Station, introduce new Dalian trains in the commercial service, add new rolling stock, and upgrade the signaling, depot, power and communication systems, among others.
