By Philippine News Agency CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan -- The construction of the Tutuban-Malolos phase of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) North-South Railway began in this city on Friday. Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John Batan, Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda, PNR General Manager Jun Magno, Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino Sy Alvarado, Bulacan 2nd District Representative Apol Pancho, Bulacan 4th District Rep. Linabelle Villarrica, and representatives from Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. Ltd. led the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction work along the old PNR railway in Barangay Mabolo here. Tugade said the construction of the North-South Commuter Railway (Malolos- Tutuban) is one of the flagship projects of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) together with the PNR, in line with the “Build, Build, Build” program of the government. Tugade said the project is expected to be completed by the last quarter of 2021. “This is the President’s (Rodrigo Duterte) gift not only to the people of Bulacan and Pampanga, but more importantly, to the people of this country, in high hopes of providing them with an efficient and comfortable mode of transport. The President would like to reiterate his commitment, that we are committed to give a comfortable life without any temptation or badge of corruption,” Tugade said. It is a 37.6-kilometer mass railway transportation expected to reduce travel time between Manila and Bulacan from over one hour and 30 minutes to only 35 minutes only. Once the railway is fully operational, it is expected to serve approximately 300,000 commuters daily. There will be a total of 10 stations along the alignment project that will rise in Tutuban, Solis, Caloocan, Valenzuela, Meycauayan, Marilao, Bocaue, Balagtas, Guiguinto, and Malolos. It will also be seamlessly integrated with the PNR North 2, Malolos- Clark Project and the PNR South Commuter, Manila to Calamba, Laguna Project, forming one integrated commuter railway system that will serve commuters travelling to, from, and within NCR, Central Luzon (Region 3), and Calabarzon (Region IV-A). The project is made possible through an Official Development Assistance (ODA) from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with its loan agreement signed on November 27, 2015 while the Detailed Engineering Design (DED) was approved in August 2017 parallel to the procurement of the General Consultant (GC) which has started in January 2018. To date, the ongoing development and implementation of the project, include the proper resettlement program of the government as part of the social responsibility of the department for approximately over 300 informal settler families (ISFs) along the project alignment. With this, the DOTr has entered into an approved a memorandum of agreement for Caloocan and Manila, Valenzuela and Guiguinto for Bulacan areas with the PNR, National Housing Authority, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and Local Government Units for the relocation and resettlement of ISFs, affected by the project.