PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. yesterday led the ceremonial signing of the contracts for the Philippine National Railways South Commuter Railway Project held at the Jose Rizal Monument, The Plaza in Calamba City, Laguna.
Calamba City Mayor Roseller Rizal welcomed the President who was joined by the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Philippines His Excellency Kim Inchul, Charge d’ Affaires, Ad Interim of the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey to the Philippines Ceren Nur Coskun, Asian Development Bank Vice President for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ahmed Saeed, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, and other local officials.
The Asian Development Bank in June announced that it will finance the project for a total of $4.3 billion or P227.6 billion in loan financing.
The railway system will be having 18 stations traversing 10 cities namely City of Manila, Makati City, Taguig City, Paranaque City, Muntinlupa City, San Pedro City, Binan City, Santa Rosa City, Cabuyao City, and Calamba City.
A connecting tunnel will also allow the operation of direct trains from Calamba to future Metro Manila Subway system stations, further reducing the travel time between Manila and Calamba from two and a half hours to only an hour.
The contract signing signifies the successful bid for the four different stages of the project to be supervised by joint venture agreements between corporations from the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Turkey.
The South Commuter Railway Project is seen to further strengthen the Philippines’ economic recovery from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as it is expected to create more than 35,500 jobs during construction and over 3,200 permanent jobs during operation.
