The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Philippine National Railways (PNR) have awarded the last of the five civil works contracts for the Malolos-Clark extension of the the North-South Commuter Railway System (NSCR).
The last contract, tagged as Contract Package N-03, covers 12 kilometers (km) of elevated viaduct and one station building in the cities of San Fernando, Angeles, and Mabalacat in Pampanga. It was awarded to the Italian-Thai Development Public Co. Ltd.
“[A]nd now, the five contract packages are complete. The project is alive and well and we can say that there is no stopping us from attaining our goal to provide comfort and convenience to our fellowmen,” Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said.
The PNR Clark Phase 2 project is the 53-km northern segment of the 147-km NSCR, which will run from Clark in Pampanga all the way to the town of Calamba in Laguna.
“What we see here is the coming together of an impressive league of the biggest and the best players in the construction industry here and abroad, funded by the Asian Development Bank with its largest-ever financing package for a single project to build the Philippine government’s single largest project in history,” Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John R. Batan said.
PNR General Manager Junn B. Magno added that as of August, the Malolos-Clark segment has an overall progress rate of 26 percent, which is still within target of the agency.
“It seems to quite catch-up with PNR Clark Phase 1, or the Tutuban to Malolos segment, with over 40 percent. We remain hopeful and we keep exerting not just double but triple effort to fast-track this project and at least make it partially operable before the end of President Duterte’s term,” he said.
The bigger NSCR aims to provide commuters and travelers with a railway system that will span 26 local governments through 37 stations, connecting three regions.