Just months after purchasing two trains, the Philippine National Railways (PNR) has re-purchased seven more trains price P45 million from the Indonesian government to upgrade the country’s oldest railway system.
Under two contracts concluded by PNR with the Indonesian government company PT Industri Kereta Api (PT Inka), three diesel-hydraulic locomotive (DHL) trains and 4 diesel multiple units (DMU) shall be delivered to the Philippines between December 2019 and January 2020 .
DHL, which has a contract price of $24 million each, has five coaches per set and might carry 1,330 passengers on a single trip.
The barely cheaper DMU set, with a contract price of $21 million each, consists of 4 cars and might accommodate 1,090 passengers.
The agreements were signed by PNR CEO Junn Magno and PR president Inka Budi Noviantoro, and witnessed by Department of Transportation officials led by Secretary Arthur Tugade and Rini Soemarno, Indonesia’s minister of state-owned enterprises.
PNR CEO Junn Magno said DHL is an answer to rail service interruptions during rainy seasons and typhoons because they’ll wade through floodwaters as much as 20 inches from the highest of the tracks.
Magno said it was the primary time in 40 years that the PNR had purchased latest trains from its own budget, after receiving a budget of P3.5 billion in 2018.
In January, PNR purchased two diesel-electric trains also from PT Inka for USD 9.1 million.
Source: inquirer.net
