Two of the country’s top property developers are bidding for the P4-billion Integrated Transport System (ITS) South Terminal project.
At the opening of bids on July 31, Ayala Land, Inc. and Filinvest Land, Inc. both submitted bid documents for the public-private partnership (PPP) project that calls for the building, operation, and maintenance of a transport terminal south of Metro Manila for a period of 35 years.
“We are quite happy with the turnout. These bidders are really experienced in this kind of business,” Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Undersecretary Perpetuo Lotilla said.
Two other companies that submitted prequalification documents—MWM Terminals and Datem, Inc.—did not submit their technical bids.
DOTC’s Bids and Awards Committee has 20 days to evaluate the technical bids and another 15 days to evaluate the financial offers of the two bidders.
“But we will try to accelerate it and award the project by August,” Lotilla said.
The project covers construction of a terminal on a 4.7-hectare lot on FTI Compound, Taguig. The terminal will connect passengers coming from the south, specifically Batangas and Laguna, to public utility vehicles that are serving inner Metro Manila.
The project also involves the construction of arrival and departure bays, setup of public information systems, and building of ticketing and baggage facilities and park-ride facilities.
DOTC aims to award the project in the third quarter this year in order to begin construction by the second quarter of 2016, with the terminal set to open in December 2017. The ITS-South Terminal is the second of three transport terminals that the government is bidding out under its PPP program.
MWM Terminals, a company led by Megawide Construction Corp, had topped the bidding for the first project, the P2.5-billion ITS Southwest Terminal.
A third terminal, the ITS North Terminal, will be built on the grounds of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
