DOTr dropping contractor in LRT-MRT central station project
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) will terminate its agreement with the contractor of the Unified Grand Central Station, citing “excessive delays” in the project.
Conceived during the Arroyo administration, the station was intended to link major railways Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1, Metro Rail Transit Line (MRT) 3 and MRT 7.
Transportation Secretary Vivencio Dizon, who visited the site along Edsa on Monday, said in a statement on Thursday that the consortium of BF Corp. and Foresight Development and Surveying Co. (BFC-FDSC) had left the “construction progress idle for over a year now.”
During his visit, Dizon said, he was dismayed to find the project still incomplete with rusting steel bars scattered and no workers around.
The consortium may face penalties and liquidated damages for failing to comply with its obligations, said Dizon, who has been keen on fast-tracking infrastructure projects since his appointment last month.
“The delay is unacceptable. This project should by now have been completed,” Dizon said, adding that DOTr lawyers are working on finalizing the termination of the contract.
The project was supposed to be finished back in 2021.
“Our legal team and common station team have already reached out [to the consortium] and we’re fixing the requirements for the legal termination of the contract with finality, and then, at the same time, we’re studying the way forward under the rules and regulations of the Government Procurement Act (GPA),” he said.
The department is looking at potential options based on the GPA or the Public-Private Partnership Code to complete the project and may have to find a new contractor to finish it before President Marcos’ term ends in 2028.
Public convenience
The transportation chief underscored the importance of the project for commuters as it would allow seamless transfers among two major rail lines—MRT 3 and LRT 1—and later with MRT 7 and the Metro Manila Subway.
“It’s very important that the project be finished quickly because it will bring great comfort to our commuters,” he said.
The 13,700-square-meter common station is located in Bagong Pag-asa, Quezon City, at the intersection of Edsa and North Avenue and is designed to service up to 500,000 passengers daily.
Based on the plan, it would have an intermodal integrated transport system below, allowing commuters to take buses, jeepneys or taxis conveniently.
Dizon also said the DOTr would also check the government’s liability to the contractor regarding late payments.
“Payment on time is a classic deficiency of the government. We will check all that. At the end of the day, we will balance all of those, the deficiencies of the government, the deficiencies of the contractor, and at the end we will reach a solution for all of those,” he said.
Protracted delay
The common station project dates back to 2009, when SM Prime Holdings Corp. signed an agreement with the government for the station to be built near the annex of SM City North Edsa.
It also paid the government P200 million in a deal that also included naming rights.
Construction at the SM North Edsa site suffered delays after the Aquino III administration took over in 2010.
A legal battle ensued in 2014 when the government decided to move the station’s location to an area near the Trinoma shopping mall of the Ayala group.
The DOTr then explained that building it near Trinoma was cheaper. Critics, however, noted that commuters have to walk for longer distances just to change trains.
A compromise was reached in 2016 settled for a location between SM City North Edsa and Trinoma. In this setup, passengers would only walk for 50 to 200 meters to their next train lines.
The contract for the construction of the common station was awarded to BFC-FDSC in 2019.
BFC is a construction firm founded by the late Bayani Fernando, former chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
