The Department of Transportation said over the weekend it expects the partial operations of the San Pablo-Pagbilao segment of the P151-billion Philippine National Railways Bicol by April 2022.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the agency was looking at the partial opening of the San Pablo, Candelaria, Lucena and Pagbilao segments of the PNR Bicol, or PNR South Long-Haul Project, by April. The full operations of the project is expected by 2025.
About 560-kilometers long, the PNR Bicol railway line runs from Sucat, Parañaque to Matnog, Sorsogon.
Once operational, PNR Bicol is expected to reduce travel time between Manila and Legazpi from 14 to 18 hours to just six hours with regular commuter trains and 4.5 hours with express trains.
Tugade said he instructed to contractors to hire at least 60 percent of their workers from the localities where the project would be built.
Around 25,000 jobs will be generated during the construction phase of the rail project and is expected to generate 10,000 more local jobs once it becomes operational, he said.
The DOTR earlier said the Manila-Clark commuter rail project would be fully operational by 2024.
The P150-billion PNR Clark Phase 2 (Malolos to Clark segment) recorded an overall progress rate of 32 percent as of July, while the P106-billion PNR Clark Phase 1 (Tutuban to Malolos segment), reached a 48-percent completion rate.
The two projects are part of the massive 147-km. North-South Commuter Railway, which will have 35 stations and operate 464 train cars, with 58 eight-car train sets configuration.
The NSCR System is the single largest infrastructure project funded by the Asian Development Bank and is the longest greenfield commuter railway project to be financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
It is also the biggest project to be undertaken under the “Build, Build, Build” program of the Duterte administration with a total cost of P777.55-billion. It is one of the key infrastructure railway projects supported by Japan, in addition to the Metro Manila Subway and the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 rehabilitation projects.