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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DOTr allocates ₱110 B for PH rail projects

DOTr allocates ₱110 B for PH rail projects

Published Sep 30, 2021 04:30 pm

With P110 billion for 2022, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is focused in developing the country’s land-based rail system for high-capacity transport for goods and people.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade inspects the Lucena Station in Quezon Province, one of the 35 stations of the PNR Bicol Project that is eyed for partial operability by April 2022. (Photo from Department of Transportation)

The Philippines, according to DOTr officials led by Secretary Arthur P. Tugade in Thursday's (September 30) Senate budget hearing, has 30 to 40 years of catching up with 118 other countries in their rail transport.

Attending the Senate sub-finance committee chaired by Senator Grace Poe, officials of the DOTr and attached agencies defended a P151-billion proposed budget for 2022 as allotted by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). But they want more for aviation, airport and maritime projects.

They said a World Bank survey showed that the Philippines is at the bottom among 119 countries in adopting the rail infrastructure system.

‘’We need to fill that big infrastructure gap,’’ they added.

Of the P110 billion for rail infrastructure projects, about 92 percent are foreign-funded.

Poe was surprised why the DBM allotted only P1 million for the road projects of DOTr.

For the past four to five years, Tugade said that the DOTr has remitted P50 billion to the national government.

Tugade told Poe that what his department asked is very different from what the DBM gave them.

In 2016, the Philippines has only 77 kilometers of railway as the Mindanao railway project that started in 1950 needs attention.

DOTr officials told the committee that they asked the DBM to give funds for the Mindanao rail project but was not given any.

‘’We need high-capacity land-based rail transport,’’ they explained. The road system could not be depended anymore, they added.

They pointed out that the carrying capacity of an eight-coach trail, which could be extended to 10 coaches, is equivalent to 1,300 cars or 224 jeepneys or 64 buses.

They also said that the subway project would be on a trial run in the first quarter of 2022.

Asked by Senator Nancy Binay on whether the climate change factor has been considered since the New York subway system was recently flooded, DOTr officials assured that they considered the technical experience of Japan in building subways.

Related Tags

Senate 2022 budget railway sector rail projects Grace Poe DOTr
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