ADB extends biggest loan to Ph

Travel time between Blumentritt in Manila and Clark International Airport in Pampanga will be slashed to less than one hour when the 53.1-kilometer Malolos-Clark Railway Project starts operations in 2022, thanks in part to a $2.75-billion loan to be extended by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The board of the Manila-based multilateral lender on Thursday approved its biggest loan for the Philippines to date for the Malolos-Clark Railway, which will be cofinanced by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).

The ADB loan will cover civil works such as bridges, stations and viaducts for the elevated railway alignment, as well as the tunnel going to the underground station for Clark International Airport, ADB principal transport specialist for Southeast Asia Markus C. Roesner told a press conference.

Meanwhile, Jica’s counterpart financing worth $2 billion will be used to buy trains as well as put up electrical and mechanical systems, he added.

Roesner said bidding was already ongoing for six contracts covering elevated alignment, depot and stations.

The Malolos-Clark Railway will have seven stations in Blumentritt, Calumpit, Apalit, San Fernando, Angeles, Clark, and Clark International Airport, all of which will be partially operated starting 2022 in order to cater to 350,000 commuters a day, Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary Goddes Hope O. Libiran said.

By the time it is ready for full operations, the rail system will serve one million passengers a day, Libiran added.

This railway project has two components, the main of which was the 51.2-km section connecting Malolos City to Clark across six stations.

Malolos, in turn, will be connected to Tutuban in Manila by the ongoing Jica-financed rail system, which will also be connected to Light Rail Transit (LRT) 1’s Blumentritt station by the second section of the Malolos-Clark Railway project.

Under the second phase will be built a 1.9-km Solis-Blumentritt extention, where the elevated interchange station for LRT 1 will also be constructed.

“The rail stations will include multimodal facilities, allowing commuters to easily transfer from public buses and jeepneys to the trains. The underground station at the Clark International Airport will provide a short connection to upcoming and future airport terminals,” the ADB said in a statement.

According to Roesner, the train will cut travel time between Manila and Clark to just less than one hour from two to three hours by car or bus at present.

“Our cofinancing partnership with Jica allows both our institutions to combine our expertise and knowledge in building a world-class railway in the Philippines,” Roesner said.

As a whole, the ADB said this project “will help ease the current chronic road congestion in Metro Manila, reduce air pollution, cut the costs of transport and logistics, spur economic growth in central Luzon, and encourage a population shift from the capital to growth centers in the north, such as Clark in Pampanga.”

“The ADB’s partnership with the Philippines has always been strong, and it has become stronger in the last three years,” ADB president Takehiko Nakao said.