THE number of rail contracts to be awarded by the Department of Transportation (DoTr) is projected at 65 by 2022, more than double the current level.

“From just eight awarded contracts in 2006, the DoTr Railways Sector currently has 32 contracts, which will increase to 65 by the end of 2022,” the department said in a statement Saturday.

Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade and DoTr Railways Sector officials met with consultants and contractors Friday to discuss the processing of their payment claims.

The department said it is committed to “uphold its obligations to pay” the consultants and contractors “as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

“But in order to do so, they must submit their billings on time,” it added.

Ten process innovations for the claims system were presented during the meeting to facilitate “effective and efficient programming, monitoring, and processing and to support responsible, responsive, and transparent budget management, most especially due to the scale of railway projects under the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program,” it said.

Among the DoTr’s consultants and contractors in the railways sector are OCGlobal JV, Shimizu-Fujita-Takenaka-EEI JV, J-Trec and Sumitomo JV, China Railway Design Corp. and Guangzhou Wanan Construction Supervision Co. (CRDC-WACC), China Harbour Engineering Co., Shimizu Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Erigphi JV, Inc., CMX Consortium, Foresight-Soosung JV, DMCI, Marubeni-DMCI Consortium, Westrax JV, Sumitomo Corp., Oriental Consultants Global Co., Ltd. and Tonichi Engineering Consultants, Inc., BF Corp. and Foresight Development Surveying Company Consortium, Metro-Link JV, NSTren, Taisei-DMCI JV, Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., GCR Consortium, Hyundai-Megawide-Dongah JV, Acciona-Daelim JV, ITD, Acciona-EEI JV, and POSCO.

DoTr Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John R. Batan said last week that the government is expected to have built up a railway project pipeline of P1.7 trillion by its last year in office in 2022.

He said 91% of the projects will be funded through foreign loans or official development assistance, with P1.548 trillion provided by bilateral and multilateral partners Japan, the Asian Development Bank and China.

The P8-trillion ‘Build, Build, Build’ flagship program allocates about 21.7% to railways, 42% to other transportation infrastructure projects, 12% to water projects, 13% to social infrastructure, and the rest to power, information technology, government buildings and other works. — Arjay L. Balinbin

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