By Arjay L. Balinbin, Senior Reporter

THE PHILIPPINE Transportation department has awarded contracts for the Metro Manila Subway Phase 1 and South Commuter Railway projects.

A notice of award was issued on Sept. 23 to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. Ltd. for the contract to build the Anonas and Katipunan stations as well as tunnels of the country’s first underground rail system.

The contract package is worth P21.14 billion ($360 million) plus 14.95 billion yen (P6.08 billion), for a total of P27.22 billion, according to the document posted on the website of the Procurement Service Office under the Budget department.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency still needs to concur with the award, while the contractors must submit the required documents, based on the rules covering Japan’s official development assistance loans, Transportation Undersecretary Kim Robert C. De Leon said in the notice sent to Sumitomo Mitsui Managing Executive Officer Hitoshi Yamaji.

The Philippines and Japan signed in March 2018 the first tranche of the P355.6-billion loan for the 36-kilometer (km) underground railway that will run from Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay City.

Notices of award were also issued for four contract packages of the South Commuter Railway Project, which is financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The joint venture of Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. and Dong-Ah Geological Engineering Co. Ltd. of South Korea recently won three contracts.

The South Korean joint venture won a contract to build an 8.5-km railway viaduct, including elevated stations in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

Mr. De Leon said the contract, which is worth P14.49 billion plus $109.65 million, was awarded on Sept. 16. Six other bidders lost.

The same South Korean joint venture beat five other bidders for a contract covering a 12.8-km railway viaduct structure, including elevated stations in San Pedro, Pacita, Biñan and Santa Rosa in Laguna province.

The contract is worth P21.62 billion plus $124.19 million.

Another contract the joint venture won is the package for a 10.28-km railway viaduct and elevated stations in Cabuyao, Banlic and Calamba in Laguna worth P19.73 billion plus $126.13 million. Six other bidders lost.

Meanwhile, the joint venture of South Korea’s Lotte Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd., Turkey’s Gulermak Agir Sanayi Insaat ve Taahhut AS and the Philippines’ EEI Corp. was awarded a contract to build a depot and 0.5-km road worth P15.91 billion plus $21.33 million.

They beat five other bidders including DM Consunji, Inc. and the joint venture of Megawide Construction Corp. and Chun Wo Construction & Engineering Co. Ltd., according to a separate document from the same state website.

Megawide and its joint venture partners from Japan, Tokyu Construction Co. Ltd. and Tobishima Corp. signed in May a contract for the Manila subway. The package covers the construction of underground stations in Ortigas North and South as well as the tunnels connecting the two.

Megawide and its joint venture partners Dong Ah and Hyundai Engineering of South Korea also won the contract for the first package of the Malolos Clark Railway project in 2020.

On Thursday, Megawide said it had opened another precast plant in Taytay, Rizal. “The new plant will increase the company’s overall precast production capacity,” it said in an e-mailed statement.

“The plant can produce over 35,000 cubic meters of precast annually, adding to Megawide’s current production capacity of 96,000 cubic meters, making it the leading precast manufacturer in the country,” the company said.

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