The Philippine Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has postponed the submission of bids for the operation and maintenance (O&M) contract for Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2).

The deadline for submission of bids has been moved to March 8, from Jan. 26. Interested firms has now more time to prepare their offers. 

The winning bidder would operate and maintain the existing 13.8-kilometer LRT-2 from C. M. Recto Ave. in Avenida, Manila to Santolan in Pasig City with 11 stations as well as the proposed extension project covering an additional 4.19 kilometers and two stations all the way to Masinag in Antipolo City.

The winner would also operate and maintain other future extension of the LRT-2 system. The extension is expected to further increase the current 200,000 daily passenger volume of the mass transit system that traverses the cities of Manila, San Juan, Quezon City, Marikina and Pasig.

The concession will have a period between 10 and 15 years.

In February 2015 we reported that DOTC announced that four groups have submitted pre-qualification documents for the project. The four prospective bidders were the following:

• Aboitiz - SMRT Transport Solutions consortium;
• DM Consunji Inc.-Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. consortium;
• Light Rail Manila Holding 2: Ayala Corporation and Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), RATP TRANSDEV Asia, and RATP Developpement SA; and
• SMC - KORAIL consortium.