(SEALED. DOTr Sec. Arthur P. Tugade (6th from right) shake hands with Sumitomo Corp. GM Hiroshi Karashima after signing contract with (L-R) DOTr Usec. Reiner Paul Yebra, Usec. Garry De Guzman, PNR chair Roberto Lastimosa, DOTr Usec. Timothy John Batan, JTREC president Takao Nishiyama, Sumitomo Corp. president Seiji Takano, Embassy of Japan Sadaharu Hori, and JICA chief representative Yoshio Wada. Photo courtesy of CDC-CD)
CLARK FREEPORT – The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and its Japanese partners, the joint venture of Sumitomo Corp. and Japan Transport Engineering Company (J-TREC), signed the contract for the manufacture of train coaches for Package 3: Rolling stock of the PNR Clark Phase 1 Tutuban-Malolos at the Marriott Hotel here on Tuesday.
The P12.1-billion supply contract was signed by Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade and PNR chair Roberto Lastimoso for the government, and Sumitomo Corp. general manager Hiroshi Karashima and J-TREC president Takao Nishiyama.
Tugade said the plan is to have eight trains per set that will be manufactured by their Japanese partners.
“So that if we have 13 sets, we have around 104 trains similar to those and the capacity is 2,200. These trains will be travelling from Tutuban to Clark to Calamba,” Tugade explained.
“This is the reason why we are all here today to sign an agreement where the prototypes you see will come into fruition by 2021,” Tugade said, pointing to the miniature prototype displayed at the venue.
He said the contract that was signed indicated that the trains shall be delivered in full by the end of the last quarter of 2021.
He hastened that he prodded their Japanese partners to deliver the trains by the third quarter of 2021 instead of the last quarter so that the Tutuban-Clark-Calamba route can be realized at the end of the year 2021.
“Let me tell you that this morning, prior to entering this room, I have talked to Mr. Nishiyama in the presence of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and we have agreed to do a fast track mechanism so that the trains committed to be delivered on the fourth quarter of 2021 shall be delivered no later than the third quarter of 2021,” Tugade said.
“Why are we doing this? Why are we agreeing to fast track the manufacture of these trains? Because I have promised the President that we will have the partial operability of the Tutuban-Clark- Clark-Calamba by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021,” he declared.
“If the trains will be delivered by the fourth quarter of 2021, then I cannot operate the trains before the end of 2021,” he reasoned.
“So, today the first agenda that we have talked about prior to our coming here is to come into effect an agreement in principle that we will strive to work together so that the trains will be delivered on the third quarter of 2021 so that we will come to the realization that the partial operability of the Tutuban-Clark-Calamba route will be operational by the end of 2021,” Tugade said.
The PNR Clark Phase 1 (Tutuban-Malolos) broke ground on February 15, 2019. The 37.6-kilometer, elevated mass railway system will connect Malolos to Manila and will entail 10 stations.
The trains can run up to 120 kilometers per hour, and reduce the travel time between Manila and Bulacan from over one hour and 30 minutes to 35 minutes once the system is fully operational by 2022.
The project is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency under a ¥241.991-billion or P93.457-billion loan agreement signed in November 2015.
The PNR Tutuban- Malolos line will be integrated with the PNR Malolos-Clark project and the PNR South Commuter— Manila to Calamba, Laguna project—to form an integrated commuter railway system that will serve commuters travelling to, from, and within NCR, Region III, and Region IV-A.
The full interoperability of the entire PNR North-South Commuter Railway is expected to happen in 2023.
The signing was followed by the Japanese traditional ceremony, the Sake Barrell Breaking Ceremony, where Tugade toasted every guest with a copious libation of sake.
