Will the Aquino administration be the one to finally link northern and southern Luzon from Cagayan to Sorsogon by rail?
The plan may be brought by the Department of Transportation and
Communications (DOTC) to the National Economic and Development Authority
(NEDA) for cost-benefit analysis either late this year or early next
year.
Estimates show a P320–billion cost for the project.
DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya disclosed this the other
day when he presented the proposed DOTC 2015 budget of P54.5 billion
before the Senate finance committee chaired by Sen. Francis Escudero.
“After the NEDA analysis, we are looking forward to a bidding (of
the ambitious project) on PPP (Private–Public Partnership),’’ Abaya
said.
Abaya said the project, coined North-South Rail, may be financed by
the national government, PPP and Official Development Assistance (ODA)
or a combination between a PPP and the national government.
‘’It is too large for a PPP,’’ Abaya told Escudero.
Abaya said the DOTC has just finished its briefing with its consultant on the project.
The late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos linked the
northern-southern Luzon road line through the Philippines-Japan
Friendship Highway (PJHL) project that started in the ‘70s.
The PJHL actually links Luzon, Visayas and eastern Mindanao via two ferry services.
There is an existing rail line between Albay in the Bicol region with
Manila through its Tutuban station but the rail operation of the
state-owned Philippine National Railway (PNR) between the two points is
spotty at best.
The Manila-Damortis (La Union) line in northeastern Luzon, meantime, has been scrapped decades ago.
