THE UNSOLICITED proposal of Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC) to complete the terminated contract for the construction of the Unified Grand Central Station at North Avenue-EDSA, Quezon City, is now under review, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) said, noting that it hopes to award the contract by the end of the year.
“We have received LRMC’s proposal. We are currently reviewing it, then we will process it, and our target is by the end of the year to agree with them on how they could help us in finishing the common station,” Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John R. Batan told reporters on the sidelines of the Arangkada Investment Forum 2025 on Thursday.
LRMC is the operator of Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1).
In May, the DoTr issued a notice of termination to the contractors of the Unified Grand Central Station, also known as the common station for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) lines and the Metro Manila Subway.
The contractors — BF Corp. and Foresight Development and Surveying Co. (BFC-FDSC) — were terminated due to excessive delays, the DoTr said.
The DoTr is now evaluating the cost of the common station, Mr. Batan said, adding that since the project is under a public-private partnership (PPP), reasonable investment recovery would be part of the contract agreement.
“Again, since it is a PPP, there will be reasonable investment recovery,” he said.
Mr. Batan declined to disclose the value of LRMC’s proposal, noting that it would be premature to reveal details while the project is still under evaluation and approval.
“But our next step, once we have clarified it, is to submit it to DEPDev (Department of Economy, Planning, and Development). Once we have gotten approval, then we will find out what the cost will be,” he said.
The BFC-FDSC consortium signed a P2.8-billion agreement with the government in 2019 for the construction of Area A of the Unified Grand Central Station project.
The project aims to link Metro Manila’s main commuter rail lines, including LRT-1, MRT-3, MRT-7, and eventually the Metro Manila Subway.
It was initially targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2021 and was designed to have three sections, each built separately: Area A by BFC-FDSC, Area B by Ayala Corp., and Area C by San Miguel Corp., the concessionaire for the MRT-7 project.
LRMC is a joint venture of Ayala Corp., Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte Ltd. Metro Pacific Light Rail is a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of three Philippine subsidiaries of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT Inc. and Philex Mining Corp.
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