Settlement of legal disputes and acquisition of road-right-of-way were cited as the key factors for the realization and continued progress of the major ongoing rail projects by the government, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) said over the weekend.
Since 1994, several attempts to revive the different segments of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project failed for various reasons, the DoTr said.
"After more than two decades and attempts of four administrations to implement, as of June 2016, the 147-kilometer, 35-station NSCR Project, had zero awarded contracts, zero physical progress, and zero trains ordered, started production," the DoTr said.
"Worse, the latest attempt to implement the project ended up in a protracted legal battle in international arbitration, which threatened to further delay and stall progress on the NSCR as of June 2016," it added.
In 2017, the DoTr concluded a historic out-of-court settlement agreement of the legal dispute with Sinomach (China National Machinery Industry Corporation) that paved the way for the construction of the NSCR.
"This move saved the Philippine government more than P5 billion ($100 million) in potential payment of claims to Sinomach, and hundreds of millions more in legal fees and arbitration costs. More importantly, the settlement agreement removed this legal obstacle to the progress of the NSCR Project," Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said.
With assistance from the Japanese government, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the DoTr said both the Philippine National Railway (PNR) Clark Phase 1 (Tutuban-Malolos; 38 kilometers) and PNR Clark Phase 2 (Malolos-Clark; 53 kilometers) are now in full swing when it comes to construction.
The delivery of the NSCR's 58 eight-car train sets (totaling 464 train sars or bagons) has started, with the first train set already delivered in November 2021, the agency said.
In addition, all nine civil works contracts for the construction of PNR-Calamba (Manila-Calamba covering 56 kilometers) are about to be awarded within the first quarter of 2022.
A DoTr progress report showed as of December 2021, the PNR Clark 1 has a 53.85-percent overall progress rate, while the PNR Clark 2 has a 34.46-percent overall progress rate.
The NSCR will cut travel time from Clark International Airport to Calamba, Laguna from over four hours to as short as one hour and 30 minutes and is expected to serve more than 1 million passengers per day once fully operational.
In addition, the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT) 1 Cavite Extension project from Baclaran to Bacoor commenced construction on Sept. 1, 2019, after being delayed for more than 20 years.
"After catching up on right-of-way acquisition and its free and clear certification, as well as addressing a number of unresolved issues and constraints, the DoTr, together with the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) and Light Rail Manila Corp., started actual construction works for the project," the agency said.
Once completed, this extension is expected to reduce travel time between Baclaran and Bacoor, Cavite to just 25 minutes, from 1 hour and 10 minutes, and increase LRT-1's capacity from 500,000 to 800,000 passengers daily.
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