JICA Grants Funding For Rail Roadmap

The Department of Transportation is coming up with a 30-year rail roadmap that seeks to ensure the continuity of rail projects in the next five administrations after President Marcos.

Photo Insert: JICA will provide educational tools and planning capabilities to the DOTr in coming up with the rail roadmap.

For this, DOTr is getting a P126-million grant from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the planned Railway Master Plan that will cover a total of 30 years.

Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said the DOTr will craft the Railway Master Plan with technical assistance from JICA. It is scheduled to complete the said roadmap in three years.

The Railway Master Plan should outline how the network of rail services around Metro Manila will be expanded from 2026 to 2055.

The “master plan" is seen to transcend five presidencies, DoTR Undersecretary Cesar Chavez said vowing it will contain a “ blueprint so viable, and a vision that is so compelling that succeeding administrations will have no choice but to follow it.”

JICA will provide educational tools and planning capabilities to the DOTr in coming up with the rail roadmap. It will also make technology transfers to the agency.

For 2024, the DOTr is asking Congress to grant it a budget of P187.21 billion, of which P163.75 billion will be used to finance the rail transport program.

The bulk of the rail allocation will go for the construction of the North-South Commuter Railway and the Metro Manila Subway Project, as well as the maintenance of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3.

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