Construction works for the $2.5-billion Philippine National Railways (PNR) Clark Phase 2 project will begin before 2020 ends, according to the Department of Transportation (DoTr).
In a briefing on Thursday, Timothy John Batan, Transportation secretary for railways, said “we are starting construction by November [or] December this year with the mobilization of our three contractors, with partial operability scheduled in 2023 and out full completion scheduled [in] 2025.”
The project “will go full speed to aid [the country’s] economic recovery,” he added.
Batan’s remarks come after his department signed three civil works contracts for the project worth $1.7 billion.
Megawide Construction Corp. and its South Korean partners Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd. and Dong-ah Geological Engineering Co. Ltd. secured the P28-billion N-01 contract to build a 17-kilometer viaduct that includes elevated station buildings in Calumpit town in Bulacan province and Apalit municipality in Pampanga province.
Acciona Construction Philippines and Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. bagged the P33.7-billion N-02 contract package for a 16-kilometer viaduct and one station building in the towns of Minalin and Sto. Tomas and San Fernando city in Pampanga.
Italian-Thai Development Public Co. Ltd. won the contract to build a 12-kilometer viaduct and one station building in Pampanga as part of the Malolos-Clark extension of the North-South Commuter Railway System.
The 53-kilometer PNR Clark Phase 2, which would run from Malolos in Bulacan to Clark in Pampanga, is part of the government’s P777.5-billion North-South Commuter Railway Extension Project.
The DoTr has said the project would be operational by 2022, but the Asian Development Bank said in a statement on Thursday the railway might start accommodating passengers beginning in 2025.
It is expected to serve 340,000 passengers daily.
Once finished, travel time from Gil Puyat Ave. in Makati City to Clark International Airport would be cut to 55 minutes versus the current two hours by private vehicle via expressway.
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