Tycoons eye common station bid

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is in talks with the private operator of Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) to complete the construction of the long-delayed common station linking Metro Manila's railways.

- BY DEXTER BARRO II

Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John Batan said Light Rail Manila Corp. (LMRC) has submitted an unsolicited proposal before the DOTr to be the contractor for Unified Grand Central Station.

LRMC is the joint venture (JV) company that runs LRT-1, composed of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.'s (MPIC) Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp. (MPLRC), Ayala Corp.'s AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. (AC Infra), Sumitomo Corp., and Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure's Macquarie Investments Holdings (Philippines) PTE Ltd. (MIHPL).

Batan said the department aims to finalize the contract with LRMC within the year to continue the project's construction, which has seen no progress since last year.