Philippines, Japan break ground for biggest railway project

February 27, 2019

The Department of Transportation (DoTr) and the Japanese government on Wednesday conducted a ground-breaking ceremony for the country’s biggest railway project under its ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.

A ground-breaking ceremony for the P260 billion Metro Manila Subway Project was held at Barangay Ugong, Valenzuela City, the subway’s depot.

Last February 20, the DOTr signed the main contract for the design and build of the Metro Subway’s Valenzuela depot, tunnel structures and the first three stations under the joint venture of Shimizu Corp., Fujita Corp., Takenaka Civil Engineering Co., Ltd., and EEI Corp.

The first three stations are Quirino Highway- Mindanao Avenue, Tandang Sora and North Avenue. 

The partial operability of the first three stations is targeted at 2022 expecting around 370,000 passengers while full operation of all 15 stations, which can accommodate up to 1.5 million passengers per day is expected on 2025.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the subway will be “flood and earthquake resilient” as it will use Japanese technology.

“You know, the technology that we will use is a technology that came from Japan… The technology is matched and tested to floods and earthquakes,” Tugade said in an interview with reporters after the event.

“It will be quake and flood resilient. That’s why we said it’s an incredible subway because among the reason of incredibility is addressing the issue of flood and earthquake,” he added.

For the remaining stations, the transportation chief said they still have yet to conduct a bidding for this year.

He is also expecting to conduct a bidding for the one who will operate and manage the subway before the end of 2019.

Tugade clarified there is no requirement that the subway should be managed by a Japanese company.

The mega subway will be an 36-kilometer railway system that will run from Quezon City to NAIA Terminal 3 in Pasay and FTI in Taguig crossing seven local governments, and passing through three of Metro Manila’s business district.

Trains are seen to have a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour, making the travel time from Quezon City to NAIA Terminal 3 to go down to as short as 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, Transportation Undersecretary for Railways John Timothy Batan said initial 19 train sets will consist of eight cars with a capacity of 2,000 passengers.

“The stations are set but since we only have eight car trains, we can expand to 10 car trains in the future,” Batan said in an ambush interview.

During his speech, Tugade said he will be watching the contractors to make sure they will finish within their timeline.

“Inaugurating and groundbreaking is one thing, finishing it is another. We will finish this in 2022. As they said in English, I will be watching you,” the transportation chief said.

He told the public, especially those who doubt the project, that this is finally happening.

“Those who doubt us, please believe that Philippine subway is now true and those who believe in as, please continue on giving us support and prayer so that we will all finish and experience the Philippine subway station,” he said.

Tugade thanked the Japanese government for its continuous support to the government’s infrastructure program.

The government of Japan, through Official Development Assistance (ODA), granted a loan amounting to 104.530 billion yen or P51 billion loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the first tranche of this project.

Japanese Embassy Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda also thanked the Philippine government for entrusting their largest project to them.

“Our collaboration with the Philippine government to build and operate country’s first subway truly brings us pride. The Philippines entrusted us with this largest flagship project of the Duterte administration,” Haneda said.

“In return, Japan vows nothing but a world class mass transit system… The Philippines can count on Japan to impart our extensive experience not only in subway construction but also in railway operation and maintenance,” he said.

During the event, DOTr also presented the sample model of the tunnel boring machine they will use which Tugade said will arrive in three to four months.

He seek for the public’s understanding as this will cause inconvenience.

“They will be affected. That’s why we are asking for their understanding the inconvenience this development will cause. This is important, and you choose inconvenience for three to four years or inconvenience for 20 years,” said Tugade.

Once construction starts, they will create a traffic management team to handle things such as time of work or the equipment that will be used.

“This project led by the president (Rodrigo Duterte) will give Filipinos comfortable lives because the president and his administration is committed in giving Filipinos a comfortable lives,” said Tugade.

For his part, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said this subway system will provide speedy, efficient and reliable mass transport.

“Filipinos were long deprived of this kind of mass transport and we will not take our swift time, we will deliver the subway to the Filipino people as fast as we can, as well as we can and without any corruption,” said Medialdea.

“This subway is a testament to the president’s drive to make life comfortable for all and a recognition that the Filipino people deserved nothing but the best,” he added.

Shimizu Philippine Contractors, Inc. vice president Yuji Sasaki said they want to finish this project before the term of Duterte ends.

“We will do our best,” Sasaki said in an interview with The Daily Manila Shimbun. Ella Dionisio/DMS