MRail Inc., a subsidiary of Manila Electric Co., said Wednesday it resumed talks with state-run Philippine National Railways on the proposed P10-billion Manila-Laguna Freight Train Project.
“The Freight Project has always been there. However, it was only prudent that we wait for the appointment of the new set of board of directors as well as the new GM [general manager] before we bring the project back on the table,” Mrail president and chief executive Ferdinand Inacay said.
MRail and PNR were supposed to sign a track usage agreement in early 2016 but had to defer it pending a legal opinion from the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel.
The OGCC approved the submitted draft of the MRail-PNR Track Usage Agreement, but the parties were prohibited from entering into an agreement during the 2016 national election campaign period.
“We remain optimistic that the Freight Project will push through as the project provides very tangible value propositions to the government, the business sector particularly the importers and exporters located in the Calabarzon area and to the environment as a whole.
“The project manifests our support to the administration’s thrust towards building more railways and we believe that this project will compliment that goal,” Inacay said.
Mrail and its partner International Container Terminal Services Inc. earlier said they would invest P10 billion over two years to revive a container rail service from Manila to Calamba in Laguna.
The project, which will revive freight service operations from the Port of Manila to the Laguna Gateway Inland Container Terminal, will provide an alternative mode of transport for containerized cargoes moving to and from Southern Luzon.