Awarding of subway civil works contracts to wrap up in 2024 — DOTr

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is targeting to award the remaining civil works contract packages for the Metro Manila Subway Project before the year ends.

In a chance interview with reporters, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said the agency has already finished the procurement process for the Contract Packages (CP) 105, 108, and 109 of the subway project.

CP 105 involves the underground stations in Kalayaan Avenue and Bonifacio Global City; CP 108 covers Lawton and Senate-DepEd stations; and CP 109 involves the construction of NAIA Terminal 3 station.

Bautista said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is finalizing its review of the procurement process for the contract packages.

"We should be able to award this maybe before the end of the year… for the remaining [packages]," the transportation chief said.

So far, the DOTr has awarded four contract packages for the project.

These are the CP 101, covering four stations—East Valenzuela, Quirino Highway, Tandang Sora, and North Avenue—and the depot and the Philippine Railway Institute Building, bagged by a joint venture led by EEI Corp.; the CP 102, comprising the stations in Quezon Avenue and East Avenue, bagged by D.M. Consunji Inc.; the CP 103, bagged by Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. Ltd., which involves the stations from Anonas to Camp Aguinaldo; and Megawide Construction Corp. was awarded the CP 104, which covers the Ortigas to Shaw Boulevard segment.

The Metro Manila Subway project involves the construction of a depot and a 33-kilometer railway line consisting of 17 stations that will connect Valenzuela City to Pasay City with a spur line to Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.

Once operational, the subway is seen to reduce travel time from Valenzuela to NAIA from one hour and 30 minutes to just 35 minutes, servicing 519,000 passengers daily.

The project currently has an estimated total cost of P488.5 billion, of which P370.7 billion will be financed through an official development assistance (ODA) loan from JICA. Meanwhile, P117.7 billion will be covered by the Philippine government.

The Philippine government and JICA have so far signed two tranches of loan agreements—the first tranche amounting to ¥104.53 billion, or P47.58 billion, was signed in March 2018, while the second tranche, amounting to ¥253.31 billion, or P112.87 billion, was inked in February 2022.

The Philippines and Japan signed the ¥150-billion third tranche loan deal for the project last March. — VDV, GMA Integrated News