CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The government is pursuing plans for a P271.19-billion railways system called North-South Commuter Rail Line (NS-CRL) that would link Malolos, Bulacan and Calamba, Laguna.
It will be the initial project to be done under the government’s Integrated Luzon Railway Project (ILRP), the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has bared.
The DOTC said the NS-CRL would revive plans to link Central and Southern Talaglog regions that was also the mission of the aborted North Railways Projectunder the Arroyo administration.
The NS-CRL project would provide a modern railway link between Malolos and Caloocan City from where the South Rail would be rehabilitated through Alabang and Laguna.
The government Public-Private Partnership Center estimated the NS-CRL to cost about P271.19 billion for a stretch of 89.7 kilometers between Malolos and Calamba. Transportation and Communications Sec. Joseph Emilio Abaya said the project would be under the Build-Operate-Transfer scheme with the concessionaire entitled to manage and operate the project for 20 to 30 years.
The winner in the bidding for the project would not only construct the railways, but also provide rollings stocks including the trains, the railways, a modern signal system, bridges and viaducts to complete the entire system, the DOTC also said.
Under the ILRP, the railways project would eventually extend to the Clark International Airport at Clark Freeport which former Pres. Ramos, in his Executive Order No. 174, designated as the “future site of the Philippines’ premier gateway."
