MANILA – Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp.’s unsolicited proposal to take over the maintenance and operations of the MRT 3 is now progressing as dialogues have begun between the group and the Transportation department.
MPIC Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan said his group has had meetings with the Department of Transportation in the past week to tackle its unsolicited proposal for MRT 3.
“There have been some meetings between our team which we organized for the MRT3 and the DOTR for the past week or so. It seems that’s some progress on that side, there have been some meetings with the DOTR. So that’s quite an important dialogue in respect of our unsolicited proposal,” Pangilinan said at the sidelines of the NLEX-SCTEx-Cavitex Digital Tollroads launch.
Pangilinan said the MPIC’s proposal to take over the operations and maintenance of the MRT 3 is a concession agreement.
The arrangement is similar to how the Light Rail Manila Corp – MPIC’s consortium with Ayala Corp and Mcquarrie – is running the LRT line 1.
Ayala is also on board in the proposal for MRT 3.
Also indicated in the proposal is a 30-year concession period.
However, Pangilinan said, the group will eventually ask for the buyout of ownership of the MRT 3, which is currently being held by the Sobrepeña group.
Pangilinan cannot provide figures as to how much the MPIC-Ayala consortium will shell out for MRT 3.
The rehabilitation of the train line that runs from Taft Avenue to North Avenue is pegged at P12.5 billion, while cost of acquisition of ownership, concession fees, and other expenses have yet to be determined.
The MPIC-Ayala groups had also submitted an unsolicited proposal in 2012 to then-Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, but negotiations did not prosper.
“We all know, I think, the MRT has had a number of issues for the past many years. Kami lang naman, we want to resolve these issues for the benefit of commuters. I’m sure the government shares that objective as well. So quite how they will approach this is another subject matter,” Pangilinan said.
The MRT 3 is currently being operated by the government and maintained by Busan Universal Rail, Inc. (BURI).
BURI’s maintenance contract is set to end in January 2019.
