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The three groups that have been pre-qualified to bid for the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway-Dike PPP project will have until March 28 to submit their offers.

The deadline has been moved several times. Last month, the bid submission for the project was rescheduled from Jan. 7, to March 14. This was the third time that the Philippine PPP Center extended the bid submission deadline. The original schedule was July 6, 2015, which was deferred to Nov. 6, 2015 and then to Jan. 7, 2016. 

In March 2015, three groups were prequalified to carry out the project, the teams are the following:

• San Miguel Corp.,
• Team Trident, composed of Ayala, Aboitiz, SM Prime Holdings Inc and Megaworld,
• Alloy-PAVI-Hanshin LLEDP consortium made up of Malaysia's Alloy MTD Capital Berhad, Prime Asset Ventures Inc, and Hanshin Engineering Construction.

The project will be developed on a design, build, finance, operate and maintenance (DBFOM) basis. The contract will have a period of 37 years, including 7 years for design and construction and 30 years for operation and maintenance. The project consists of two parts, namely:

• construction of a 47 kilometer flood control dike (on top of which will be a six-lane expressway) from Taguig City to Los Baños for about P64.914 billion; and

• reclamation of 700 hectares west of the expressway-dike for about P57.897 billion to create opportunities for developing a new business and residential area on reclaimed land, to enhance regional and urban development.

The total project investment is estimated at P122.8 billion (US$2.62 billion), of which P64.914 billion (US$1.39 billion) will be for the development of the 47 kilometer flood control dike-highway.

The new highway is expected to reduce the travel time from Metro Manila to Laguna from 90 minutes to 35 minutes. The project will also prevent flooding from Taguig in Metro Manila to Los Baños, Laguna.