The Department of Transportation said it is looking at official development assistance loans from Japan to maintain and rehabilitate Metro Rail Transit Line 3.
The agency said high-level discussions with the government of Japan were ongoing to pave the way for the government’s direct engagement with Sumitomo Corp. and technical partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, under a government to government ODA platform.
It said once the G2G agreement for an ODA was signed, the maintenance and rehabilitation service contractor would be contracted pursuant to the government of Japan and Japan International Cooperation Agency rules.
“The joint venture of Sumitomo Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is being closely considered due to their background and experience with the MRT-3 – they designed and built the system from 1998 to 2000, and maintained the system from 2000 to 2012,” the department said.
It said the maintenance and rehabilitation contract would have a term of three years and would include the rehabilitation and restoration of the system to its original performance standards.
The DOTr terminated the three-year maintenance contract of Busan Universal Rails Inc. on Nov. 6 because of its alleged inability to meet the performance indicators in the contract and failure to procure spare parts.
The DOTs said it was also pursuing an unsolicited proposal for the 30-year operation and maintenance of MRT-3. An original proponent status was given to the proponent, Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., and the proposal would soon be endorsed to National Economic and Development Authority for further evaluation.
“The maintenance and rehabilitation service provider will be contracted ahead of the O&M provider to allow for the Neda approval and Swiss Challenge process. When the O&M provider assumes the operation of MRT-3, they will also take in the maintenance and rehabilitation service provider that will be contracted earlier by DOTr,” it said.
Metro Pacific earlier said it planned to invest up to P20 billion for the rehabilitation and maintenance of MRT-3.
MRT 3, which runs along Edsa from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City, serves over 500,000 passengers a day, beyond its rated capacity of 350,000.
The line has a fleet of 73 Czech-made air-conditioned rail cars.