The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is expected to award all nine civil works contracts for the construction of the 56-kilometer Philippine National Railways (PNR) Calamba project within the first quarter of 2022.
PNR Calamba, the third leg of the North and South Commuter Rail (NSCR) project, has an overall progress rate of 28.62 percent as of last month, according to the DOTr.
The project has 19 stations and its train line will connect Metro Manila from Solis St., Tondo to Calamba, Laguna, reducing travel time from the current four hours to just one hour.
The project is expected to serve at least 340,000 passengers a day during its partial operation by 2025. Its ridership is expected to increase up to 550,000 passengers once the railway is fully operational in 2028.
With the assistance from the Japanese government through Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Asian Development Bank, construction of the NSCR project is in full swing and the delivery of its 58 eight-car train sets composed of 464 train cars or bagons have started. The first train set was delivered last November.
Other NSCR projects are the 38-km. PNR Clark Phase 1 Tutuban-Malolos and 53-km. PNR Clark Phase 2 Malolos-Clark, with construction work at 53.85 percent and 34.46 percent overall progress rate, respectively, as of December 2021.
PNR Clark Phase 2 is the second segment of the NSCR project. It will feature the country’s first ever airport express service.
Once operational, this will reduce travel time between Makati City and Clark International Airport from one hour and 30 minutes to just 35 minutes.
The NSCR System will cut travel time from Clark airport to Calamba, Laguna from over four hours to as short as one hour and 30 minutes. This is expected to serve more than one million passengers per day after full operations.
