Ayala-MPIC bags 10-year contract for LRT-MRT ticketing PPP

The Transportation Department on Thursday night awarded its first project under the Aquino administration's flagship infrastructure program – a  railway ticketing modernization contract – to the Ayala-Metro Pacific group.

A notice of award project automating the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit's (MRT) ticketing project was issued “to AF Consortium last night,” Cosette Canilao, head of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) center, the agency overseeing the big-ticket projects, said in a text message Friday.  

AF Consortium is led by Ayala Corporation and Manuel V. Pangilinan's Metro Pacific Investments Corporation.  

The group has proposed to undertake the project, dubbed Automated Fare Collection System (AFCS) and worth over a billion pesos. It also offered to pay the government P1.088 billion in permiums over a 10-year concession period.

“We are pleased to announce that a modern ticketing system is on its way for our train riders,” Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said in a statement Friday afternoon.   

The AFCS involves replacing the LRT lines 1 and 2 and the MRT line 3's ticketing system to a unified tap-and-go technology, much like Hong Kong's Octopus Card.

It is seen to substantially lessen queuing time and allow seamless transfer from one rail line to another.

The contract involves a 10-year contract, inclusive of two years of development and delivery.

“The AFCS will provide passengers with more comfort, convenience, and efficiency in their daily commute, at no cost to government or to the passengers,” said Abaya.

The AFCS is the first PPP under the DOTC to be awarded.

Due to stringent project reviews and locking horns between the private and public sectors, only four projects – two toll roads and two nationwide classroom construction projects – with a combined value of P43 billion have so far been awarded prior to the AFCS.

PPPs under the DOTC have been hounded by a failed bidding and disagreements with and among private sector participants.

“I congratulate the DOTC for awarding its first PPP project,” said Canilao.

Among PPPs in the DOTC's pipeline are the Mactan-Cebu Airport Project, LRT-1 Extension to Cavite, and the Integrated Transport System (ITS) Project. — Siegfrid O. Alegedo/KBK, GMA News