JAPAN has finalized the cost, scope and schedule of the rehabilitation and maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3, setting a P16.98-billion price tag for the said project.
According to a media advisory, the minutes of discussion for the appraisal mission for the deal was attended by representatives of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) last Friday.
The appraisal initiative has set the cost of the project to P16.98 billion, and will cover the railway line’s trains, power-supply system, overhead catenary system, radio system, closed-circuit television system, public address system, signaling system, rail tracks, road-rail vehicles, depot equipment, elevators and escalators, and other station building equipment.
Tentatively, the whole deal will take about three and a half years, 31 months for the simultaneous rehabilitation and maintenance works to restore train system to its original design condition and capacity, and a year for the defect liability period.
Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John R. Batan said that the appraisal mission forms part of process for official development assistance (ODA) deals with Japan.
Talks for the said assistance started last year. January saw the exchange of note verbale between the two governments.
A month after Jica representatives started the on-site inspection of the MRT 3’s condition and noted the works needed to rehabilitate the system.
From March to April, Japanese engineers stated preparing the system’s inspection report, which includes both the scope of works and cost estimates.
It was finalized last Friday, when the appraisal mission was concluded.
By June, Batan said, the Philippines expect to finalize the following: “pledge by the government of Japan, exchange of notes and the loan agreement signing.”
Likewise, the two government agreed to commit to best environmental management practices and social considerations through the procurement of a supervision consultant who will facilitate the implementation of an Environmental Management Plan and an Environmental Monitoring Plan.
To ensure the project’s sustainability, the supervision consultant shall also draft and institutionalize new MRT 3 manuals, which will update methodologies on appropriate asset management, project monitoring and supervision, and operations and maintenance activities.
The Japan ODA-financed rehabilitation and maintenance project is intended to “fix everything that needs to be fixed” in the MRT 3 through a well-qualified, experienced and single-point-of-responsibility rehabilitation and maintenance service provider, Batan stated.
The government is currently directly engaging Sumitomo Corp. and its technical partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the upkeep of the MRT 3.
The two companies designed, built and maintained the MRT 3 in its first 12 years of operations.
Sumitomo’s maintenance contract was terminated in 2012, after the previous Aquino administration decided to take over the said component despite contrary provisions in the build-lease-transfer contract with MRT Corp.
The new rehabilitation and maintenance service provider will be mobilized after securing the loan agreement from Japan.
The Jica-financed initiative is part of the government’s program to rehabilitate, expand and modernize the train system.
Another option being considered is the acceptance of the unsolicited proposal of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. for the rehab and modernization of the railway line.
Metro Pacific submitted in 2017 an unsolicited proposal that involves the expansion of the capacity of the railway system by adding more coaches to each train, allowing it to carry more cars at faster intervals. It will double the capacity of the line to 700,000 passengers a day from the current 350,000 passengers daily.
The multimillion-dollar expansion is deemed as an all-encompassing deal, including the improvement of the reliability of rolling stock, the upgrading of power supply, the upgrading of stations and the replacement of rails, which will allow the company to operate the new trains purchased by the government from Chinese train manufacturer Dalian.
Unsolicited proposals are required, under the law, to be subjected to a Swiss challenge, wherein other groups can offer a similar proposal, and the original proponent can present a counter offer.
The government awarded the original-proponent status to Metro Pacific last year.
Metro Pacific has nominated Light Rail Manila Corp. as its corporate vehicle for the MRT 3 deal. The said company, a partnership between Metro Pacific and Ayala Corp., operates the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1.
Its proposal for the MRT mimicked the same provisions under its concession agreement for the LRT 1 operations and modernization deal, which it bagged in 2014 via the Public-Private Partnership Program.
It means that, instead of having a different operator and maintenance provider, the group will be the one to do both, something that Robert John Sobrepeña has been pushing for since the government forcibly took over the upkeep of the facility in 2012.
Currently, the MRT 3 operates with 16 working trains daily, serving roughly 350,000 passengers per day.
According to a media advisory, the minutes of discussion for the appraisal mission for the deal was attended by representatives of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) last Friday.
The appraisal initiative has set the cost of the project to P16.98 billion, and will cover the railway line’s trains, power-supply system, overhead catenary system, radio system, closed-circuit television system, public address system, signaling system, rail tracks, road-rail vehicles, depot equipment, elevators and escalators, and other station building equipment.
Tentatively, the whole deal will take about three and a half years, 31 months for the simultaneous rehabilitation and maintenance works to restore train system to its original design condition and capacity, and a year for the defect liability period.
Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John R. Batan said that the appraisal mission forms part of process for official development assistance (ODA) deals with Japan.
Talks for the said assistance started last year. January saw the exchange of note verbale between the two governments.
A month after Jica representatives started the on-site inspection of the MRT 3’s condition and noted the works needed to rehabilitate the system.
From March to April, Japanese engineers stated preparing the system’s inspection report, which includes both the scope of works and cost estimates.
It was finalized last Friday, when the appraisal mission was concluded.
By June, Batan said, the Philippines expect to finalize the following: “pledge by the government of Japan, exchange of notes and the loan agreement signing.”
Likewise, the two government agreed to commit to best environmental management practices and social considerations through the procurement of a supervision consultant who will facilitate the implementation of an Environmental Management Plan and an Environmental Monitoring Plan.
To ensure the project’s sustainability, the supervision consultant shall also draft and institutionalize new MRT 3 manuals, which will update methodologies on appropriate asset management, project monitoring and supervision, and operations and maintenance activities.
The Japan ODA-financed rehabilitation and maintenance project is intended to “fix everything that needs to be fixed” in the MRT 3 through a well-qualified, experienced and single-point-of-responsibility rehabilitation and maintenance service provider, Batan stated.
The government is currently directly engaging Sumitomo Corp. and its technical partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the upkeep of the MRT 3.
The two companies designed, built and maintained the MRT 3 in its first 12 years of operations.
Sumitomo’s maintenance contract was terminated in 2012, after the previous Aquino administration decided to take over the said component despite contrary provisions in the build-lease-transfer contract with MRT Corp.
The new rehabilitation and maintenance service provider will be mobilized after securing the loan agreement from Japan.
The Jica-financed initiative is part of the government’s program to rehabilitate, expand and modernize the train system.
Another option being considered is the acceptance of the unsolicited proposal of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. for the rehab and modernization of the railway line.
Metro Pacific submitted in 2017 an unsolicited proposal that involves the expansion of the capacity of the railway system by adding more coaches to each train, allowing it to carry more cars at faster intervals. It will double the capacity of the line to 700,000 passengers a day from the current 350,000 passengers daily.
The multimillion-dollar expansion is deemed as an all-encompassing deal, including the improvement of the reliability of rolling stock, the upgrading of power supply, the upgrading of stations and the replacement of rails, which will allow the company to operate the new trains purchased by the government from Chinese train manufacturer Dalian.
Unsolicited proposals are required, under the law, to be subjected to a Swiss challenge, wherein other groups can offer a similar proposal, and the original proponent can present a counter offer.
The government awarded the original-proponent status to Metro Pacific last year.
Metro Pacific has nominated Light Rail Manila Corp. as its corporate vehicle for the MRT 3 deal. The said company, a partnership between Metro Pacific and Ayala Corp., operates the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1.
Its proposal for the MRT mimicked the same provisions under its concession agreement for the LRT 1 operations and modernization deal, which it bagged in 2014 via the Public-Private Partnership Program.
It means that, instead of having a different operator and maintenance provider, the group will be the one to do both, something that Robert John Sobrepeña has been pushing for since the government forcibly took over the upkeep of the facility in 2012.
Currently, the MRT 3 operates with 16 working trains daily, serving roughly 350,000 passengers per day.
No comments:
Post a Comment