EEI Corp. and foreign partner ACCIONA won a contract from the government to build one of the sections of the new railway that will link the city of Malolos in Bulacan province and Clark International Airport in Pampanga.
EEI said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Contract Package N04 involves the construction of a 6.5-kilometer main railway line which includes an elevated section, an underground section with cut and cover technology (or 'false tunnel' technology, used for surface tunnels) that will provide access to Clark International Airport station, substation and auxiliary facilities.
The rail line will become a key transport infrastructure that will link Metro Manila to the airport in Clark and is one of the priority projects identified by the Department of Transportation.
Meanwhile, Contract Package N05 which involves the construction of a 33-hectare Clark Railway Depot was awarded to South Korea’s POSCO Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd., as announced by the DOTr.
The project financed by Asian Development Bank is estimated to be completed in three years.
The Malolos–Clark Railway Project, a part of the 163-kilometer North-South Commuter Railway Project, aims to ease road congestion in the capital and nearby provinces and reduce annual traffic-related economic costs which total $18 billion in Metro Manila alone.
It will help push economic activity to regional growth centers like Clark.
The project will cut the travel time between Clark and Manila from two to three hours by bus to one hour by train, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60,000 tons annually.
The civil works will help the Philippines’ economic revival as it will create about 24,000 local construction jobs in the next three years and 14,000 more jobs related to the railway system’s operation.
It will lead to larger, indirect employment and economic benefits to local businesses, such as suppliers of raw materials, which in turn will create more jobs.