• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The provincial government announced on Monday, Aug. 12, that it will accommodate additional prospective bidders for the P1.2-billion Negros Occidental Bulk Water Supply Project (NBWSP) after extending the bid submission until Oct. 28 this year.
The decision was reached after careful consideration by the province’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Pre-qualification, Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC), which has deemed it in the best interest of the project to effect the extension requested by bidders.
With the extension, bidders will have more time to provide feedback on key aspects of the bidding process, which will serve as valuable inputs to the PBAC in further refining the project’s bidding documents and parameters, a statement from the provincial government said.
This feedback mechanism is part of the bidding process for solicited PPP projects such as the NBWSP, it added.
Interested parties may purchase access to the bidding documents and the right to participate in the bidding for the project up until the bid submission date. Purchase instructions may be found in the invitation to bid accessible at this link: https://ppp.gov.ph/…/2023/12/NBWSP_Invitation-to-Bid.pdf while information memorandum and key project details are available here: https://ppp.gov.ph/…/negros-occidental-bulk-water…/
Provincial Legal Officer Alberto Nellas Jr. earlier said that the provincial government granted the request of majority of the bidders to extend the bidding, which was supposed to be held in June this year, as they needed more time to come up with good proposals for the project.
The NBWSP involves the financing, engineering design, construction, operation, and maintenance of a bulk water supply system with a minimum capacity of 34.5 million liters/day (MLD), to be sourced from the Imbang River and/or Malogo River.
It is expected to supply treated bulk water to six water service providers in Negros Occidental in the cities of Bacolod, Silay, Talisay and Victorias, and the municipalities of Manapla and E.B. Magalona.
The project shall be implemented through a joint venture agreement with the provincial government for a period of 38 years, inclusive of the construction period.
The municipalities of Manapla and E.B. Magalona, cities of Victorias, Talisay and the highly-urbanized city of Bacolod have each issued a resolution of no objection (RONO) to the project.
As of this time, only Silay City has not issued a RONO after some of its officials opposed the project.
The provincial government said it remains committed to conduct a fair, transparent and competitive bidding process. | GB
