By GENIVI FACTAO
[ Malaya.com.ph ] December 16, 2011
Ayala Corp. yesterday won the bid to build and operate the Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) link road project, the first public-private partnership (PPP) priority project that was successfully auctioned off by the national government, with its offer of P902 million.
Ayala Corp. bested the only other bidder, South Expresslink Corp., a consortium made up of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., Global Network Investido, Star Tollway Corp. & CLGP Philippine Holdings, Inc. which offered P608 million.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will award the P1.956-billion Daang Hari-project on December 22, according to Undersecretary Rafael C. Yabut, chairman of the bids and awards committee.
"Ayala Corp. will be subject to a post-qualification process to verify the accuracy of the statements it made in its qualification documents and bid proposal. If it passes the post-qualification process, it will be designated the winning bidder and will receive a notice of award," said Yabut.
Aside from South Expresslink Corp. and Ayala Corp., a joint venture of D. M. Consunji, Inc. & C. M. Pancho Construction Inc., was also pre-qualified to bid, but the company did not submit a bid and withdrew before the deadline for the submission of bid documents at 10 a.m. yesterday.
The Daang Hari-SLEX link road project is a strategic component of the Metro Manila Urban Expressway Network Master Plan intended to provide a high-standard highway within a 200-kilometer radius of Metro Manila.
"The road will provide an alternative route to and from Metro Manila to Cavite and vice versa. It is expected to decongest traffic in some parts of Cavite and in the cities of Las Piñas and Muntinlupa," said DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson.
Construction for the project will start in February 2012 for segment 1 and September 2012 for segment 2.
Segment 1 with a total length 2.3 km will start at Km 0 at the Daang Hari–Daang Reyna junction I in Bacoor, Cavite, running eastward and passing through the National Bilibid Prisons Reservation, ending at Km 2+300.
Segment II with a total length of 1.7 kilometers will start at the end point of Segment I, Km 2+300, and ends at approximately Km 4+000 to connect with the Susana Heights interchange of the SLEX.
The project will be implemented following the build- transfer-operate (BTO) arrangement under the BOT Law and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
It involves a 30-year operation and management concession period plus a 16-month construction period from 2012 to 2013.
The starting toll rate for this project in the opening year is P17 for class 1 vehicles, P34 for class 2 vehicles and P51 for class 3 vehicles, all inclusive of value-added investment in Daang-Hari.
Eric Francia, managing director for strategic investments of Ayala Corp., said the project will complement the group’s residential projects in Alabang and Cavite.
Francia said the group is also looking at other infrastructure projects that the government will bid out, particularly the NAIA expressway and the NLEX-SLEX connector road.
Francia also said the company is looking at opportunities in the construction of the Laguindingan airport in Misamis Occidental.
Francia said funding for the Daang-Hari project is still under discussion but the group nonetheless "has the capacity to finance it as all equity."
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