DOTr to bid out Mindanao Railway project in June

The bidding for phase one of the Mindanao Railway project is slated to begin in June, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said Wednesday.

“For the Mindanao Railway, we are going to start the bidding by June this year," Transportation Undersecretary for Rails Timothy John Batan said.

“We are going to have our contractor and start works by this year for the phase one, which is the 103-kilometer Tagum-Davao-Digos segment,” he said.

The proposal was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Board, chaired by President Rodrigo Duterte, in June 2017.

The first phase, which involves the establishment of a 102.28-km commuter railway from Tagum City in Davao del Norte to Digos City in Davao del Sur, was estimated to cost around P35.26 billion.

The project is expected to cut travel time from Tagum City to Digos City from 3 and a half hours to one hour and 20 minutes when its starts operating by 2022.

The first phase will cover eight stations: Tagum, Carmen, Panabo, Mudiang, Davao Terminal, Toril, Sta. Cruz, and Digos, with a 10-hectare depot to be constructed in Tagum.

The commissioning of detailed engineering designs is still ongoing for the other segments of the 2,000-km Mindanao Railway project, Batan said. —VDS, GMA News