Northrail revival to affect 17,000 families

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — A new study has revealed that some 7,000 families in three Metro Manila towns and another 10,000 more in seven Bulacan towns would have to be relocated to pave the way to the North Railway project which President Arroyo had cited in her state of the nation address as an important concern of her administration.

Former House ways and means committee chairman Renato Diaz, now presidential assistant for Northern Luzon, said in an interview yesterday that Malacañang is set to reactivate the Northrail Corp. under the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) so that the long-delayed modern railway project could be started.

"We have reiterated our interest to the Japanese government for $1.2 billion loan or the first phase of the railway project extending from Caloocan City to Calumpit, Bulacan," Diaz said in an interview at his newly established office within the aviation complex here.

He said that bidding on the railway project would be done as soon as the Obuchi fund is made available, expectedly before March next year. — Ding Cervantes