The Department of Transportation (DOTr) said 28 Japanese companies have expressed interest in bidding for the operations and maintenance of the country’s North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) System.
DOTr Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John Batan noted the strong turnout during the fourth and final leg of the NSCR’s market sounding in Japan. The participants included major corporations such as Mitsubishi Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo Metro, Sumitomo Corp. and Alstom Japan.
“We’re very happy to see the attendance in this fourth leg for our O&M roadshow,” Batan said.
“It only goes to show that we are on the right direction in terms of structuring and developing this O&M concession,” he said.
Batan said the DOTr would consolidate the feedback from the roadshow participants and incorporate it into the bidding documents and concession agreement. The tender for the project is expected to be officially launched and published by late September or early October.
The market sounding in Japan followed previous events in Singapore, France and Manila.
The 148-kilometer NSCR System is a flagship project under the “Build Better More” program. It is designed to help decongest Metro Manila roads and will have 37 stations and 464 train cars.
The network is composed of three segments: PNR Clark Phase 1 (Tutuban-Malolos), PNR Clark Phase 2 (Malolos-Clark) and PNR Calamba (Solis-Calamba).
The railway will run across 26 cities and municipalities in Central Luzon, the National Capital Region and Calabarzon.
It aims to serve more than 800,000 passengers daily once fully operational. The Clark-Valenzuela segment of the 874-billion-peso NSCR System is set to begin operations by 2028.
