LIGHT Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) on Thursday said it inked a P650-million deal with First Balfour, Inc. and MRail, Inc. for the rehabilitation of the power substations of the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1).
First Balfour and MRail have committed to complete the rehabilitation of the substations, some of which are 30 years old, within two years. It will involve the replacement of major substation equipment such as the critical switchgears, rectifiers, transformer, cables, and upgrade of the supervisory control and data acquisition system.
“As they power our trains, the substations are absolutely critical to providing reliable electricity supply and efficient operations of trains,” LRMC President and CEO Juan F. Alfonso was quoted as saying in a statement.
LRMC, the consortium of Ayala Corp., Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd., bagged the public-private partnership (PPP) project for the Cavite extension in September 2015.
Metro Pacific Investment Corp. is one of three Philippine subsidiaries of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT, Inc. and Philex Mining Corp. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., maintains an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group.
