THE Department of Transportation (DoTr) said the contract for the construction of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-Light Rail Transit (LRT) common station project is scheduled to be awarded by August.
“By August this year we will award the common station contract. We could… finish the project by 2020,” DoTr Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John R. Batan said in a media briefing in Clark on Tuesday.
Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade told reporters construction is expected to begin immediately after the awarding.
“We have two eligible contractors. What we’ll talk about now is their qualifications… their bids will be opened by end of July,” he said.
The DoTr broke ground on part of the common station in September. The original completion target for the project was 2019, but because of a failed bid in November, progress stalled.
The common station project is meant to link major commuter rail lines — LRT Line 1, MRT Line 3, and MRT Line 7, which is currently being built.
Last year, the government signed a memorandum of agreement with Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), SM Prime Holdings, Ayala Corp. and San Miguel Corp. — to settle the long-disputed location of the project. Parts of the station will be built near the SM North EDSA Annex and TriNoma mall in Quezon City.
MPIC is one of three key Philippine units of Hong-Kong based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Denise A. Valdez
