Northrail project back to zero, Mar says

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – The government is “back to zero” in the implementation of the North Railways (Northrail) project linking the international airport here to Metro Manila, Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II admitted yesterday.

Roxas said he tackled the Northrail issue with President Aquino “for hours” the other day.

He said the President “is secretly supportive” of projects for his constituents in Central Luzon.

But Roxas said the finished portions of the Northrail during the Arroyo administration would probably serve no purpose since the design of Chinese contractor Sinomach was for a slower commuter train.

“Anyway, what was done covered only less than a kilometer of the 90 kilometers of the railway,” he said.

Funds for the project under the Arroyo administration were from a loan from the Chinese Export-Import Bank.

Phase 1 of the project from Caloocan City to Malolos, Bulacan was supposed to initially cost some $403 million, amid reports that Sinomach, which used to be known as the China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. (CNMEC), had already been paid no less than $40 million for their partial accomplishments, consisting mostly of concrete posts for the railways.

“The contractor (Sinomach) had minimal or even no experience (in high speed train projects),” Roxas said, noting reports that the firm had previously handled only hydro projects.

“We will change contractor,” he said.

Roxas stressed the Northrail envisioned between Clark and Metro Manila should run more than 100 kilometers per hour. Travel between the two points should be shortened to no more than 45 minutes, he added.

Such a mode of transportation, he stressed, was needed to realize plans to transform the Clark International Airport into a premiere international gateway of the country.

Roxas, however, added talks with the Chinese government for more funding for the Northrail are expected to be stalled by a change of political leaders in China.

In a once-in-a-decade process, the Communist Party in China is expected to elect Vice President Xi Jinping to replace Chinese President Hu Jintao, with whom the Arroyo administration had already held talks on the Northrail projects, Roxas said.

Roxas said here last January that the Chinese government was willing to provide as much as $2 billion for the railways project, although he said this was merely a “tabletop estimate,” as a definite engineering design still has to be formulated.

Roxas said the Northrail project would again be bid out so a really competent contractor could handle it.

Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, who used to be president of the North Railways Corp. during the Arroyo administration, said that despite the controversy on the Northrail, the government should still pay the Chinese bank for the loans already used for the project.