Light Rail Manila Consortium, led by Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., expects to take over the operations and maintenance of the LRT Line 1 before October.
“We are hoping to take over the LRT Line 1 before the one-year period lapses or before October 2,” LRMC president and chief executive Jesus Francisco said.
LRMC earlier won the bidding for the P64.9-billion LRT1 Cavite Extension, one of the public-private partnership projects of the government.
MPIC, through Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., owns 55 percent of LRMC, while AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. holds a 35-percent stake. Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Inc owns the remaining 10 percent.
Francisco said the company was working on the handover protocol of the project with the Transportation Department and Light Rail Transit Authority.
“There’s a lot of technical and legal matters before the takeover. The preparation is quite extensive,” he said.
“We are also trying to assess the condition of the present LRVs [light rail vehicles]. We want as many of them to fix before we actually take over,” Francisco added.
Under the concession, LRMC will assume the O&M of the existing 20-kilometer LRT 1, and construct the 11.7-kilometer extension of the rail line southward from the Baclaran station all the way to Bacoor, Cavite.
This entails the construction of eight new stations, of which 3 will have intermodal facilities. The eight new stations after Baclaran will include Aseana, MIA, Asia World, Ninoy Aquino, Dr. Santos, Las Piñas, Zapote, and Niyog. The intermodal facilities will be located at Dr. Santos, Zapote and Niyog.
The project will increase the span of LRT 1 from 20.7 kilometers to 32.4 km, and provide commuters from Cavite and other parts of Parañaque and Las Piñas access to central Manila.