Business groups seeking a chance to win the P35.4-billion Cavite Laguna Expressway (Calax) project, now on its second bidding round, are being given until May 19 this year to prepare and submit their proposals, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said in a published notice Friday.
The notice, formally known as an invitation to bid, marks the start of the rebidding process for the 45.5-kilometer tollroad, which aims to spur development in areas south of Metro Manila while reducing road congestion.
The project is among the larger public private partnership (PPP) deals rolled out by the Aquino administration. But it ran into trouble in 2014 when bidder San Miguel Corp. sought President Aquino’s intervention in June last year, following its disqualification over a typographical error on its bid bond.
Malacañang in late 2014 sided with SMC, given that its P20.1-billion “premium offer” was about P8.4 billion higher than the amount being offered by a consortium between Ayala Corp. and a unit of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., which emerged as the frontrunner after SMC was removed from the running.
As expected, the current rebid process will include the P20.1-billion floor price, the DPWH invite showed. This is to match SMC’s premium offer, which is an amount that comes on top of the cost to build the tollroad.
The expressway project will also be auctioned under a single-stage process, meaning a single submission for pre-qualification, technical and financial proposals on May 19, to save time. Assuming the project is awarded by the middle of 2015, it would already have been a year behind schedule.
Apart from SMC and the Ayala-Aboitiz consortium, two other bidders, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Malaysia’s AlloyMTD Group, participated in the auction last year. It was not immediately certain if the same or new groups besides SMC would participate in the rebid, but observers have previously noted that the “high” floor price would be discouraging to many groups.
In its bid invite, the DPWH noted that Cavite and Laguna were considered among the most industrialized and urbanized areas in the Philippines being the manufacturing hubs for big electronics and automotive companies.
“The aim of the Calax Expressway is to provide a more convenient and faster route to/from Metro Manila and Calabarzon,” DPWH said, referring to the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon. Other benefits include decongesting the existing road network, reduce travel time to and from Metro Manila as well as providing a link between Manila Cavite Expressway and South Luzon Expressway.
The Cavite Laguna Expressway will be a four-lane expressway running from the Manila Cavite Expressway (in Kawit, Cavite) through Slex Mamplasan Interchange in Laguna. It will consist of eight interchanges namely: Kawit, Daang Hari, Governor’s Drive, Aguinaldo Highway, Silang, Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay, Laguna Boulevard, Technopark and a toll barrier before Slex, information on the DPWH’s invite showed. Miguel R Camus
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