CLARK FREEPORT – Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas admitted here recently that the government is “back to zero” in the implementation of the north railways project (Northrail) to link the Clark International Airport to Metro Manila.
In an interview, Roxas said he and Pres. Aquino tackled the north railways issue “for hours” the other day, and that the President “is secretly supportive” of projects for his “cabalens” in Central Luzon.
But Roxas said that the finished portions of the Northrail during the Arroyo government would probably serve no purpose since its Chinese contractor Sinomach’s design was for a slow commuter train and not a high speed one.
“Anyway, what was done covered only less than a kilometer of the 90 kilometers of the railway,” he said.
Funds for the project under the Arroyo government were from a loan from the Chinese Export-Import Bank.
Phase 1 of the project from Caloocan City to Malolos, Bulacan was supposed to initially cost some $403 million, amid reports that the Chinese contractor Sinomach, which used to be known as the China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. (CNMEC), had already been paid no less than $40 million for their partial accomplishments, consisting mostly of concrete posts for the railways.
“The contractor (Sinomach) had minimal or even no experience (in high speed train projects,” Roxas said, noting reports that the firm had handled only “hydro” projects previously.
“We will change contractor,” he said, as he stressed that the Northrail envisioned between Clark and Metro Manila should run more than 100 kilometers per hour. Travel between the two points should be shortened to no more than 45 minutes, he added.
Such a mode of transportation, he stressed, was needed to realize plans to transform the Clark International Airport here into a premiere international gateway of the country.
Roxas, however, also said that talks with the Chinese government for more funding for the Northrail is expected to be stalled by change of political leaders in China.
In a once-in-a-decade process, the Communist Party in China is expected to elect Vice President Xi Jinping to replace Chinese Pres. Hu Jintao with whom the Aquino government had already held talks on the Northrail projects, Roxas said.
In an interview here last January, Roxas said the Chinese government was willing to provide as much as $2 billion for the railways project, although he said this was merely a “tabletop estimate,” as a definite engineering design still has to be formulated.
Roxas said the Northrail project would again be bid out so a really competent contractor could handle it.
Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, who used to be president of the North Railways Corp. in the latter years of the Arroyo administration, said in an interview that despite the controversy on the Northrail, the government should still pay the Chinese bank for the loans already used for the project.
