Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp (SMC), among six other companies, have purchased bid documents for the Swiss Challenge of NLEx-SLEx Connector Road.

Obrascon Huarte Lain SA (OHL) and Hunan Road and Bridge Corp, are the other two developers interested in the project. The four remaining companies are law firms.

In June 6th, we reported that the deadline to submit proposals for the NLEX-SLEX Connector road is 25 July 2016.

In January, we informed that the NEDA Board approved to move forward with the Swiss challenge. The approval was however, conditional on the proponent to agreeing to the lower project internal rate of return (IRR) of 10.87 percent instead of 12.09 percent, by lowering the opening tariff from Php100 to Php87.

The project involes the construction of a 13.4 km. 4-lane elevated expressway over the Philippine National Railway (PNR) right of way which starts at Caloocan City and ends in Buendia, Makati City. It will connect North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) to decongest traffic in Metro Manila.

The total project investment is estimated at PHP21.2 billion (US$457.2 million).