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Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 9:30 am Post subject: Phils Northrail project could be world’s costliest railway
RP’s Northrail project could be world’s costliest railway – Drilon
FIDEL R. JIMENEZ, GMANews.TV
07/19/2008 | 05:44 PM
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MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines will be having the world’s most expensive railway — about $25 million per kilometer — if the Arroyo administration pushes through with the construction of the controversial Northrail project.
This is according to former senator Franklin Drilon who is urging President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to terminate the government’s deal with China National Machinery and Equipment Corp Group (CNMEG), the contractor for the proposed 32.2-kilometer railway from Caloocan City in Metro Manila to Malolos City in Bulacan province.
“It will land in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most expensive railway," said Drilon, during a media forum at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City on Saturday.
He said Tibet’s electric railway system, which was harder to build because of the area’s mountainous landscape, would pale in comparison with the Philippines’ Northrail project.
Drilon said Tibet only spent about $3.7 million per km for the construction of the complicated structure.
According to the former senator, $299 million was added to the $503-million original contract price of Northrail, thus the cost per km of the project will be about $25.06 million or over P1 billion per km.
He said the CNMEG wrote a letter asking the Philippine government for additional $299 million to cover the project's “cost overrun."
“This work is not yet on the construction of the railways but just for engineering design. This is one of the anomalies in this contract because the project was awarded even without the specification," Drilon said.
Drilon said the Arroyo administration had already spent P5.4 billion since the project was implemented, “but it still had nothing to show."
That cost is very overblown Victoria in Australia is well known for gold plating rail and mass transport projects in order for them to become too costly and build expressway instead that only the rich can use.
That project smells of corruption and siphoning off of project cash by contractor or govt departments. Is this the reason for the massive over run in cost.
Is that Northrail project a "full metro" or some kind of DMU or EMU operated commuter service?
That cost is very overblown Victoria in Australia is well known for gold plating rail and mass transport projects in order for them to become too costly and build expressway instead that only the rich can use.
That project smells of corruption and siphoning off of project cash by contractor or govt departments. Is this the reason for the massive over run in cost.
Is that Northrail project a "full metro" or some kind of DMU or EMU operated commuter service?
Howdee,
It is a modern DMU service.
The various political figures keep screaming about the cost difference between Northrail and the new Linkage project.
Fact is Northrail is on a line not use for many years, requires removing thousands of squatters and housing them, removing all grade crossings and elevating a huge portion of Stage 1.
The linkage project is just a bit of a refurbishment of the current system, tracks and stations.
The polititions are so busy pushing their own political ambitions to even stop and realize this.
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