2 Japanese firms keen on monorail project

Japanese giants Mitsubishi Corp. and Hitachi Global have expressed interest in pursuing the P25-billion Phase 1 of the planned monorail way system that will link all the central business districts in Metro Manila, according to the Bases Conversion and Development Administration (BCDA).

In a briefing Monday, BCDA president and CEO Arnel Paciano Casanova said the two Japanese firms were looking at forging a partnership to pursue the monorail way project.

The project is expected to address the growing need for a more efficient mass transportation system in Mega Manila.

However, a feasibility study on the projects has yet to be done.

Under preliminary plans, the project will initially connect the Metro Rail Transit Guadalupe station to the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig and to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

According to Casanova, the feasibility study, which is being targeted for completion by next year, will also help determine whether the BCDA will pursue the project with funding assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency or if it will bid out the monorail project under the Public-Private Partnership program of the government.

In the meantime, BCDA chairman Felicito Payumo expressed confidence in the project’s viability.

Payumo said it was practically a “no risk” project given that the whole project, when completed, would connect the whole Mega Manila in a loop.

Specifically, the project will link central business districts, the Metro Rail Transit (Taft to North Avenue), the Light Rail Transit line 1 (Baclaran to Roosevelt) and the Philippine National Railways (PNR) system, which cuts across Metro Manila toward Southern Luzon.

Payumo believes that there will be strong investor interest in this project as there is a ready market for the system.

He said the BCDA hoped to complete the entire project during the term of President Aquino.