MANILA, Philippines – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) hopes to start by end-June a feasibility study that would finally kick off the long-proposed light railway transit project deemed crucial for the economic development in Mindanao.
The state planning agency has received eligibility submissions from eight consulting firms interested in taking on the role to conduct the study for the Mindanao Railway Project, Omer Tiblani, a member of the agency’s bids and awards committee, said by phone last week.
“We are in the process of shortlisting the eligible consulting firms,” he said.
The Mindanao Railway Project is among the NEDA’s top priorities for feasibility studies, along with the Nationwide Fish Ports Project and Ilocos Norte Irrigation Project Stage 2, under the Feasibility Studies Fund (FSP).
“All of these studies are expected to start by end-June this year,” Tiblani said.
The Mindanao Railway Project would link major cites including Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Zamboanga City, Butuan, Surigao, Davao and General Santos.
The NEDA noted, that, the development of project has long been planned but never realized.
In the terms of reference for the undertaking, the state planning agency said the proposed railway transport service “will play a major role towards improvement of Mindanao’s intra island accessibility, linkages and seamless multimodal transport networks.”
“The island is strategically located and has potential as a major transshipment point and center of trade in the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region,” it added.
The winning consulting firm will be tasked to assess the viability of the Mindanao Railway Project, as well as examine the proposed project’s contribution to the Southeast Asian regional integration master plan on ASEAN Connectivity.
The state planning agency has earmarked P30 million for the contract, taken out from the P400-million FSP under the General Appropriations Act of 2014.
Once the study in done 11 months after the notice to proceed, the Department of Transportation and Communications will be the implementing agency.
In 2013, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged the Aquino administration the other day to include the proposed Mindanao railway project in its Public-Private Partnership program.
And in 2014, Rodriguez and Abante Mindanao partylist Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr. proposed to create a railway corporation in Mindanao to own and operate railroads, tramways and other kinds of land transportation within the region.
04 May 2015
By Danessa O. Rivera
