Philippines, Japan to sign agreement to rehabilitate MRT-3 Nov 7 : official

October 31, 2018

The Philippines and the Japanese governments are set to sign the loan agreement to rehabilitate the Metro Rail Transit- 3 on November  7, an official of the Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

"The date was finalized for both countries to exchange of notes and sign the loan agreement. The two government agreed on November 7," Transport Undersecretary for Rails Timothy John Batan said in a press briefing

Batan said the engineering team of maintenance providers Sumitomo Corp, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been in the Philippines since October 15 to check the condition of the sub components of MRT3.

"This is part of the commitment of the government of Japan to accelerate the process that's why since the middle of October the engineering teams of our incoming providers are everyday on the depot, counting spare parts, checking the details of the whole subcomponents of MRT3," he said.

"So that once they sign the exchange of notes, the loan agreement and have their contracts they will hit the ground running," Batan added.

This comes after the exchange of note verbale in January 2018 between the Philippines and Japan to provide indicative official development assistance (ODA) loan financing of about 38.1 billion yen or 18 billion yen for  the MRT Line 3 Rehabilitation Project.

The Rehabilitation and Maintenance Project of MRT-3, which will be funded by JICA will cover the system’s trains, power supply system, overhead catenary system, radio system, CCTV system, PABX public address system, signaling system, rail tracks, road rail vehicles, depot equipment, elevators and escalators, and other station building equipment that will take will take 43 months: 31 months for the simultaneous rehabilitation and maintenance works to restore MRT-3 to its original design condition and capacity, and 12 months for the defect liability period.

MRT 3, which runs along Edsa from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City, serves over 500,000 passengers a day, beyond its rated capacity of 350,000. Ella Dionisio/DMS