MANILA and Tokyo should sign the official development assistance (ODA) package for the rehabilitation of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 as early as this month, a Cabinet official said, a two-month delay from the original target.
The delay, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said, stems from some kinks that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) raised, particularly issues pertaining to the trains supplied by manufacturer Dalian CRRC Dalian Co. of China.
“I wanted to sign it in August or September, but it did not push though. It’s not that the parties didn’t want to sign. There’s just an angle to it, which is Dalian,” he said in a chance interview.
The Aquino administration jump-started the acquisition of 48 new train cars for the Edsa line. It faced several years of delay due to a legal tussle with the owner of the train facility, MRT Corp.’s parent company, MRT Holdings Inc.
Despite having received the first set of trains in early-2016, the deployment of the new coaches was deferred because all 48 light-rail vehicles had to be “optimized and tested.” Onboard signaling was amiss from the train, and was only procured midway through the construction of the 48 train units.
The onboard signaling system was only installed in the trains in November 2016. The initial batch of trains should have been deployed in March of the same year, based on original targets.
After these issue were settled, the transportation department wanted to deploy the 48 trains in March 2017. However, it failed to do so after groups raised issues on the train’s weight.
The whole expansion project, amounting to P3.8 billion, will increase the capacity of the line to 880,000 daily passengers from a rate capacity of 350,000 commuters per day.
Independent auditor TUV Rheinland evaluated the whole MRT 3 system earlier this year, and noted “technical issues” in the Dalian-made trains. The transportation department’s chief earlier said these issues should be fixed and paid for by the manufacturer, and not the Philippine government.
For now, Tugade noted his group and their Japanese counterparts are now discussing the issue on the Dalian trains.
“The target is to sign by next month or sometime this month. I give short-period targets to pressure our people,” Tugade said.
Japan is extending a hand to help fix the train system through an overhaul and the procurement of a maintenance provider, particularly Sumitomo Corp.—the builder of the railway line and the decadelong maintenance provider of the system.
The P16.98-billion loan facility will be used to cover the railway line’s trains, power supply system, overhead catenary system, radio system, closed-circuit television system, public address system, signaling system, rail tracks, road rail vehicles, depot equipment, elevators and escalators and other station-building equipment. Tentatively, the whole deal will take about three and a half years or 31 months for the simultaneous rehabilitation and maintenance works to the restore train system to its original design, condition and capacity, and a year for the defect liability period.
“We are discussing this and we are close to signing it,” Tugade said.
Aside from this, the government is also considering the P30-billion unsolicited proposal for the modernization and expansion of the train system submitted by Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
Submitted in 2017, the unsolicited proposal involves the expansion of the capacity of the railway system by adding more coaches to each train, allowing it to carry more cars at faster intervals. It will double the capacity of the line to 700,000 passengers a day from the current 350,000 passengers daily.
The multi-million-dollar expansion is deemed as an all-encompassing deal, including the improvement of the reliability of rolling stock, the upgrading of power supply, the upgrading of stations and the replacement of rails, which will allow the company to operate the new trains purchased by the government from Chinese train manufacturer Dalian.
Unsolicited proposals are required, under the law, to be subjected to a Swiss challenge, where other groups can offer a similar proposal, and the original proponent can present a counteroffer.
The government awarded the original-proponent status to Metro Pacific last year.
Metro Pacific has nominated Light Rail Manila Corp. as its corporate vehicle for the MRT 3 deal. The company, a partnership between Metro Pacific and Ayala Corp., operates the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1.
Its proposal for the MRT mimicked the same provisions under its concession agreement for the LRT 1 operations and modernization deal, which it bagged in 2014 via the Public-Private Partnership Program.
It means that, instead of having a different operator and maintenance provider, the group will be the one to do both.
Currently, the MRT 3 operates with 16 working trains daily, serving roughly 350,000 passengers per day. The government wants to increase this to 600,000 passengers daily.
https://businessmirror.com.ph/dotr-japan-phl-need-to-sign-oda-package-to-rehab-mrt-3/
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