The joint venture of Megawide Construction Corp. and Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. and Dong-ah Geological Engineering Company Ltd. of Korea bagged the P28-billion contract from the Department of Transportation to build the Malolos-Clark Railway Project Package 1.
The DOTR said it issued the notification of award to the joint venture of Megawide and the two Korean firms on Sept. 18.
MCRP is part of the larger North-South Commuter Railway project of the government. Under the awarded contract, the consortium will take care of the building and provision of civil engineering works for 17 kilometers of viaduct structure, including elevated station buildings in Calumpit, Bulacan and Apalit, Pampanga.
“Megawide, together with our world-renowned consortium partners in the field of engineering, Hyundai E&C and Dong-ah, is committed to deliver the highest standards of construction and engineering excellence for the MCRP. This will be another first-world infrastructure in the making,” Megawide chairman and chief executive Edgar Saavedra said.
The project has an estimated cost of P28 billion or more than half of Megawide’s current order book of P48 billion. It will boost the company’s construction segment revenue in the next three to four years during the development phase.
Megawide said that as precast materials and construction ancillary services would be the major components for the development, the project would also benefit the company’s technologically- advanced business units and support expansion plans in the area.
“We are honored to be working with the Philippine government on the MCRP. Not only will this project, once totally completed, spur growth in Central Luzon, it will also increase connectivity and unlock exciting commercial opportunities between Metro Manila and Clark,” Saavedra said.
“This is also a strong testament to how public and private sector cooperation—foreign and local alike—can effectively propel the country towards a first-world Philippines,” he said.
The Malolos-Clark Railway Project, a part of the 163-kilometer North-South Commuter Railway Project, aims to ease road congestion in Metro Manila and nearby provinces and reduce annual traffic-related economic costs which total $18 billion in the metropolis 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 also removing 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, according to the company.