THE Philippines Department of Transportation (DOTr) has awarded a joint venture of local contractor D M Consunji (DMCI) and Taisei Corporation of Japan a contract to build the section of the Metro Manila Subway running to Terminal 3 at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
According to The Philippine Star, Contract Package 109 (CP109) awarded for Manila’s first underground metro project is worth Pesos 16.06bn ($US 270.3m). DOTr tendered CP109 in March 2023 and the DMCI/Taisei joint venture submitted a bid of Pesos 16bn. The final contract value reflects an increase of Pesos 66.2m to account for inflation between the submission of bids and contract award.
Contract award was delayed by the difficulties experienced by DOTr in property acquisition for the Metro Manila Subway project, with 82.37% of the alignment now secured and DOTr aiming to complete the process by the end of this year. However, the delays in acquiring property have pushed back completion of the project from 2029 to 2032.
Further delay was caused by uncertainty over the future management of NAIA, where metro tunnels and a station will be built under CP109. In September 2024 operation and maintenance of the airport passed to private concessionaire New NAIA Infrastructure.
Other contracts
Elsewhere on the Subway project, DMCI in joint venture with Nishimatsu Construction of Japan has been awarded CP102 covering the Quezon Avenue - East Avenue section and CP105 for Kalayaan - Bonifacio Global City. Still be awarded is CP108 covering the section from Lawton Avenue to Senate-DepEd.
According to The Philippine Star, civils works are now more than 27.08% complete on the Subway project, with 5.37km of tunnel excavated using tunnel boring machines (TBM). Construction of 10 stations and the rolling stock depot in Valenzuela City is underway.
Now expected to cost Pesos 488.5bn, the Metro Manila Subway will run for 33km from East Valenzuela to Bicutan with a branch NAIA. It will cut the journey time from East Valenzuela to NAIA from 1h 30min to 41min, and is expected to carry up to 520,000 passengers a day.
More Jica funding
Separately, on March 27 the government of the Philippines signed an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) covering the fourth tranche of loan funding that Jica is providing for Phase 1 of the Metro Manila Subway project.
The latest tranche is worth Yen 200bn ($US 1.38bn) and is repayable over 40 years with a grace period of 10 years, at an annual interest rate of 0.8%. As well as civil works including construction of the rolling stock depot, the loan will be used to fund the procurement of railway systems and a fleet of 240 metro cars.
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