By ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT on June 25, 2018
SURIGAO DEL NORTE: The DMCI Group is in talks with a Japan-based firm to bid
for the construction of the Malolos-Tutuban commuter railway project, which may
require an investment of about P50 billion from the local company.
DMCI Holdings President and Chairman
Isidro Consunji told a news conference in Surigao del Norte over the weekend
that he would return to Tokyo, Japan tomorrow (Tuesday, June 26) to continue
negotiations with their Japanese counterpart.
“There is a huge chance that this
project will go forward because there is no right-of-way issue,” he said in
Filipino.
Consunji did not identify DMCI’s
potential Japanese partner.
Described as a “game-changer”, the
Malolos-Tutuban railway will be the first phase of the 38-kilometer North-South
Commuter Railway project that will connect Malolos in Bulacan and Tutuban in
Manila. It is expected to help decongest the worsening traffic in the
metropolis.
The entire development is expected
to cost $2.88 billion and serve 20,000 to 100,000 commuters daily. Travel time
will be cut to just 35 minutes from the current two hours upon operations.
The Malolos-Tutuban railway project
is part of the big-ticket infrastructure projects lined up under the Duterte
administration’s Build, Build, Build initiative.
If it bags the project, DMCI
Holdings, Inc.’s wholly-owned construction arm DM Consunji, Inc. will undertake
the construction and system installation of the project.
The Department of Transportation
(DOTr) had announced last year that the project should break ground in the
first or second quarter of 2019, with bidding to be held sometime in the third
quarter of 2018.
“In terms of Build, Build, Build,
the commuter rail will be the most advanced,” Consunji noted, as the project
will be electricity driven and high-speed.
“That’s the most important thing
that the administration is going to do … EDSA will be decongested with that,”
he added.
Meanwhile, the second phase of the
project will run from Malolos to Clark in Pampanga, while the third phase will
extend from Tutuban to Calamba in Laguna.
The various phases were endorsed by
the Department of Finance to the Japan International Cooperation Agency for
possible official development assistance (ODA) funding during the 5th
Philippines-Japan joint committee meeting held in Tokyo last week.
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