23 foreign, local firms vie for Calamba railway project

Philippine construction giants and an array of global contractors and engineering companies submitted bids to build a portion of the P345-billion Philippine National Railways’ Calamba project.

In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) called it a “record-breaking” turnout as the firms vied for six contract packages for the construction of 40.5 kilometers of viaduct structures, 13 elevated stations and train depots spanning 22 hectares.

The bids for the six contracts were submitted on July 14 to 15 this year, the DOTr said.

Six Filipino and 17 foreign companies submitted bids.

The local bidders D.M. Consunji Inc., EEI Corp., First Balfour Inc., Megawide Construction Corp., Prime Metro BMD Corp. and Santa Clara International Corp.

Big names

Foreign bidders included seven Korean companies, three Chinese and Hong Kong firms, and three Indonesian groups. The others were from Japan, Turkey, Spain and Thailand.

These included Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. Ltd., South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering Construction Co. Ltd., Spain’s Acciona S.A. and China Construction First Group Corp. Ltd.

The rest were Chun Wo Construction (Hongkong), Leighton Contractors (Asia) Ltd. (Hongkong), DL Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Dong-ah Geological Engineering Co. Ltd. (South Korea), GS Engineering and Construction Corp. (South Korea), Lotte Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. (South Korea), POSCO Engineering and Construction (South Korea), and Samsung Construction and Trading Corp. (South Korea).

The remaining foreign bidders were PT Adhi Karya (Persero) Tbk (Indonesia), PT PP (Persero) Tbk (Indonesia), PT Wijaya Karya (Persero) Tbk (Indonesia), Gülermak Ağır Sanayi İnşaat ve Taahhüt A.Ş. (Turkey) and Italian-Thai Development Public Company Ltd. (Thailand).

ADB, Jica

The 56-km PNR Calamba will run from Metro Manila in Solis St., Tondo, to Calamba, Laguna, once fully operational by 2028.

It is expected to serve more than 500,000 passengers per day and cut travel time from Manila to Laguna from roughly four hours by car to one hour.

The PNR Calamba Project is part of the larger 147-km North South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project from Calamba in Laguna to Clark International Airport in Pampanga.

The NSCR will have a fleet of 464 train cars, or 58 trains sets, including seven Airport Express train sets.

“This record-breaking turnout of bidders is yet again an indication of the trust and confidence of both the local and international infrastructure sectors in the Duterte Administration’s Build Build Build Program,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said of the recent bidding.

The NSCR is being funded by the Asian Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. It will also be physically linked and interoperable with the Metro Manila subway project. INQ