The Department of Transportation (DOTr) opted for a solicited public bidding process for the EDSA Busway project as it returned Megawide Construction Corp.’s unsolicited proposal to handle operations and maintenance.
“We returned the proposal to them [Megawide] because we wanted to know more and and we saw that it would be faster to do solicited rather the unsolicited,” Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said.
Bautista said that under the PPP law, the approval and awarding process of unsolicited proposals would take more than a year compared to less than a year for solicited mode like the privatization of NAIA.
The government plans to bid out the project next year.
The NCR EDSA Busway Project involves the financing, design and construction of enhanced bus stations, operations control centers and parking depots and the purchase, operations and maintenance of a high-capacity busway plying through EDSA and other major and feeder roads.
It is expected to enhance the existing EDSA Carousel to address the high demand for transportation services along the median of EDSA and feeder roads by increasing capacity and service reliability.
The DOTr and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center on March 8, 2024 launched a market sounding activity to engage potential private sector partners in the crucial transport infrastructure project.
It sought to provide an overview of the proposed PPP project, gather initial feedback and valuable insights from private sector participants and identify potential issues or concerns affecting the project viability.
The potential scope of responsibility of the private sector partner could encompass financing, design, construction, operations and maintenance of upgraded bus stations and facilities, procurement of bus fleet, operations and maintenance of busway systems, the agency said.
