posted May 18, 2016 at
11:55 pm by Darwin G. Amojelar [ thestandard.com.ph]
The Public Works Department
said it may remove the flood control component of the Laguna Lakeshore
Expressway Dike project to make it more attractive to local and foreign firms.
“The DPWH will review the
assumptions and the project’s risk profile, as well as the possibility of fully
or partially undertaking the flood control component,” the agency said.
The Public Works Department
said the bidding process on March 28 failed after qualified bidders did not
submit offers, citing the project’s risk profile and complexity, especially the
flood control component and its connectivity to C5, among others.
The three pre-qualified
bidders—San Miguel Holdings Corp., Alloy Pavi Harshen LLEDP Consortium and Team
Trident—did not submit any bid for the P122.8-billion LLED project.
Laguna Lakeshore Expressway
Dike project
Team Trident is composed of
Trident Infrastructure and Development Corp., Ayala Land Inc., Megaworld Corp.,
Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and SM Prime Holdings Inc.
The Alloy-Pavi Hanshin
LLEDP Consortium consists of Malaysia’s Alloy MTD Capital Berhad, Prime Asset
Ventures Inc. and Hanshin Engineering Construction.
The three prospective
bidders said the failed bidding was due to the lack of commercial viability of
the project, which involves the construction of a flood control dike, a
47-kilometer, six-lane expressway on top of it and the reclamation of over 700
hectares of land for commercial development.
“The Laguna lakeshore
project is just not feasible. Government will have to re-examine its
assumptions and redesign a mutually beneficial contractual structure best
suited for a deal as large and intricate as this one, given its potential to
create opportunities that will generate the greatest benefit to a lot of
people,” San Miguel Corp. president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said
in an earlier statement.
“This is probably the
country’s largest and most complex PPP project to date and frankly, from an
economic viability perspective and risk allocation perspective, we found that
the government wouldn’t provide such concession agreement that addressed all
these concerns of the private sector,”
Team Trident spokesman Roman Azanza III said.
“The most logical approach
for us was not to proceed. We have to stop and really give credit to all the
men and women in government, their advisers and our advisers including the
years worth of effort into this really complex project. But the end of the day,
of course, a viable solution could not be found for all parties concerned,”
Azanza said.
The LLED project is the
largest public-private partnership venture so far, involving the construction
of a flood control dike, an expressway on top of it, and the reclamation of
over 700 hectares of land for commercial development.
The LLED concession will
last 37 years, including seven years for design and construction and 30 years
for operation and maintenance.
It will be financed mainly
by private capital with no government subsidy, except for right-of-way costs.
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